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"Put all your eggs in one basket - then watch the basket," said Andrew Carnegie.
Eliminating from consideration the comparatively few men of great genius, the successful men of today and yesterday can be accounted for under two heads. The one group succeeded by force of capital. The men in this group inherited, saved, and husbanded their property and made it work. They invested it - applied it - used it.
The other group succeeded by force of vision - by force of an idea. They recognized opportunity and they husbanded it. They put ideas to work - invested them - used them.
When the average man meets an obstacle - a stone wall - he attempts to go around it, now knowing that he will seldom reach the end.
The man that succeeds crashes through - he crashes through by the force of his genius - by the force of his capital - by the force of his idea.
The average young man of today cannot hope to batter down the "stone wall" by the power that genius gives - by the power that wealth can command. For him there remains but one potent force, applied ideas.
From the beginning of time men have been convinced that labor alone is not the medium to power. Hundreds of men have dreamed of codifying experience into an exact science. Hundreds of books have been written, hundreds of philosophers have thought and talked and taught. Hundreds of men of social vision have visioned for the means of democratizing education and opportunity.
The old idea has a new force today because of the application of the new method and new scheme of procedure and the new avenue of approach. That old idea, that old ideal of vocational betterment finds expression in a new form.
Motive power and force from the enthusiasm of men has discovered a workable, practical, practicable, reasonable and straightforward way of presenting to the workers in the business world the keys to vocational advancement.
It has put an idea to work. If the last decade has contributed anything to world wide thought it is the ideal of intensive cultivation of opportunity and intensive application of energy. If the last decade has contributed anything to business thought it is the intensive cultivation of industrial and commercial opporutnity.
Some men make sport of the man with the one idea, of the man with the "single track mind." Some men think that the man with one idea is only infatuated with that idea, but if you will think it out honestly and to the end you will see that the scatter-brain can seldom win. The man who really develops one idea to the extent of its possibilities is the man who succeeds.
A long time ago, in the early 1900s, there was a factory in Detroit covering 300 acres. UP at Detroit there is an industrial general commanding that huge plant with all its workmen. Up at Detroit there is a little keen-looking man, an able, socially minded, one-idea man - a man who faced middle age and poverty at the same time. A decade ago Henry Ford started out to fight the world with nothing in his asset column but a plan for an engine, an engineering education and one idea. It was this idea that made Henry Ford win.
It was that idea intelligently applied which would make any man win. It is the force of that idea applied to any business mixed with brains that has many times proved the formula for success.
That idea let me give to you in three meaningful words - Specialization - Standardization - Dispatch.
Henry Ford picked upon something to specialize in. He was interested in the thing he knew about. He took his beloved engine and determined to use that engine as a motive power for a car that would do a work never before dreams of.
A gasoline engine that could be used for many things. I know of a man who 30 years ago had an engine which was known all over the country to be better than any of its competitors. That man with his engine tried to get into every possible field. His factory employed 50 where Ford's employed thousands.
Standardization. Ford planned to standardize and systematize his operations in such a way that every little part of his machine could be made with accuracy and dispatch. He had his plans and measures so well worked out that any part of a Ford machine might replace some part on another Ford machine and work. Every one of those standardized parts could be made in quantities and in a standardized way lowered cost.
Dispatch. Ford planned his work and then he worked his plan. He put every ounce of energy, power, capital and reserve in this work and insisted that it win.
Few of us can be men of genius. Few of us, at least at the start, can, with the mighty backing of capital, succeed without the great backing of the idea. It is the idea that will make our real success.
For the average of us the thing to do is put all of our energy into one channel. If wer are to be accountants, let's be 99 plus percent accountants and not 50 bookkeepers and 30 percent salesman.
The successful man is a one-idea man - but he backs that one idea to the limit.
You like accounting. Then by all means be an accountant, not half an accountant and half clerk. Study other things that will help you in your idea. But give your major attention to the main idea.
Have one Big Idea. Back your one idea to the limit and you'll win.
Do you have your big idea? I invite you to share it or some version of it with others. What do you do for ideas when the idea-mill runs dry? What creativity things do you do to get the brain juices flowing again.
Tags: creativity, entrepreneur, entrepreneur, focus, idea
