“如果我有更多的时间，我会写一封更短的信”。有鉴于这句话说得充满戏谑又一针见血，人们自然而然地会误认为它是出自马克·吐温之口。不管怎么样，那些名副其实的伟大思想家，包括西塞罗、马丁·路德、本·富兰克林和亨利·戴维·梭罗，也都有过极为类似的表述。

据说，当被问及需要用多长的时间来准备演讲这个问题时，伍德罗·威尔逊总统回答道，准备10分钟的演讲需要两周的时间，一个半小时的演讲需要一个星期，“如果没有时间限制，我不需要准备，随时可以开讲”，他说道。

简短比冗长更难得，简单比复杂更可贵。在很多重要的场合下，宁缺毋滥。

如今，拥有一心专注于发展个人特长的自律精神对于成功来说比以往任何时候都更为重要。这一点不仅适用于你的事业和业务，也适用于沟通。不幸的是，越来越多的人，尤其是那些雄心勃勃的企业家们，却在贪多求全。他们的精力极其分散，面对“你从事什么工作”这个问题时，这些人无法在5秒钟之内给出答案。而这种做法后患无穷。

越来越多的人正在放弃加入公司、企业，并选择了他们所认为的自由而又灵活的创业（他们自认为是这样）。问题在于，他们并没有专注于打造创新的初创企业，而是加入了日益壮大的零工经济大军当中，徘徊于多个工作之间。

数据是惊人的。美国劳动力渗透率和新公司创建率均接近数十年以来的新低。与此同时，普林斯顿大学在《华尔街日报》刊载的一篇研究显示，个体经营者占劳动力总数的比例已从10年前的10%增至16%，

问题在哪？简而言之，生产力。MBO Partners最近的一则报告显示，个体经营者仅贡献了7%的国家GDP。换句话说，个体经营者的生产力还不到全职员工的一半。这是一个很现实的问题。

值得一提的是，它不仅涉及优步司机、Airbnb房东和Etsy上的卖家。个体经营趋势波及了广泛的行业、地域和人口。这些人通常通过兼职多项工作来维持生计。问题就出在这里。

做的零工种类越多，打造自身差异化适销技能的机会以及在任何单一领域脱颖而出的机会也就越少。多少种零工算多呢？一种以上。

如果社交媒体的个人资料能说明什么问题话，那么显然就能看出人们所从事的工作种类似乎必然比以往任何时候都要多。领英资料正在重新组建其细目清单，比如我最近看到的一个人的标签：“企业家、慈善家、事业转型教练、业务策略师、转型催化师、作者、演讲者。”

运动员在体育中仅专注于一个项目有其充分的理由。在这个充满竞争的世界中，此举是通向成功的必要条件。奥运会选手可能会在多场比赛中获得金牌，但总是集中在同一项赛事。诚然，运动员在年轻时进行各种尝试是合情合理的，但他们越早确定主攻方向越好。

苹果一直宣称其专注和自律是其获得巨大成功的关键因素。史蒂夫·乔布斯和提姆·库克都曾探讨过“专攻公司所长”的重要性，而且拒绝进入其他领域。这也是为什么苹果有能力控制其标志性产品从概念设计一直到用户体验的各个环节。

谷歌的故事有所不同。在成立初期，其十大信条包括：“最好是将一件事做到极致。”但是当艾瑞克·施密特于2011年卸任首席执行官之后，公司发布了五花八门的疯狂项目，从评价不佳的无人驾驶汽车和谷歌眼镜到无线上网气球以及Calico抗衰老项目。在长达4年的时间中，这位搜索引擎巨人曾经一路高歌的股票只能勉强跟上纳斯达克指数的走势。

自从聘请摩根士丹利首席财务官Ruth Porat之后，情况发生了彻底的变化。这位搜索引擎巨人重组为Alphabet，以提升被称为“其他投资”（other bets）的非谷歌业务的财务清晰度。此举加强了Alphabet急需的财务纪律和会计责任，并在股价中得到了体现——Alphabet股价在15个月的时间中上涨了45%。

每一位风投资本家和初创企业创始人都会告诫人们，创业成功的关键在于专注和自律。这一点同样适用于你的职业。发现你要专注的事情，停止像无头苍蝇一样乱撞，越早越好。（财富中文网）

译者：李翔

校对：詹妮

“If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.” Considering its ironic truth, it’s not surprising that the quote has been widely misattributed to Mark Twain. Nevertheless, a veritable who’s who of great thinkers, from Cicero and Martin Luther to Ben Franklin and Henry David Thoreau, have made strikingly similar statements.

When asked how long it takes to prepare his speeches,President Woodrow Wilson reportedly said that it takes two weeks for a 10-minute speech, one week to prepare a half-hour speech, and “if I can talk as long as I want,” he said, “it requires no preparation at all. I am ready now.”

Brevity is more precious than verbosity. Simplicity is far more valuable than complexity. In so manyimportant ways, less is more.

Now more than ever, having the discipline to focus only on what you do best is critical to success. It’s as true in your career and your business as it is in your communication. Sadly, more and more people – particularly aspiring entrepreneurs – are doing more and more. They’re spreading themselves too thin, unable to answer “What do you do for a living?” in less than five seconds. And that’s a recipe for disaster.

A growing segment of the population is abandoning the corporate world and opting for the perceived freedom and flexibility of entrepreneurship — or so they think. The problem is they’re not focusing on creating innovative startups, but joining the growing ranks of of the gig economy and doing a little of this and a little of that.

The data is startling. The U.S. labor force participation rate and new business creation are both at or near their lowest level in decades. At the same time, self-employed workers have ballooned to 16% of the workforce, up from 10% a decade ago, according toresearch from Princeton University reported in theWall Street Journal.

Why is that a problem? In a word, productivity. Arecent report by MBO Partners says that independent workers contribute just 7% of the nation’s GDP. In other words, self-employed workers are less than half as productive as their counterparts with full-time jobs. And that’s a real problem.

This isn’t just about Uber drivers, Airbnb renters and Etsy marketers, mind you. The self-employment trend cuts across a broad swath of industries, geographies and demographics. Those workers often make ends meet by doing multiple gigs on a part-time basis. And therein lies the rub.

The more gigs you have, the less chance you have of developing differentiated, marketable skills and excelling in any single field. How many gigs is too many? More than one.

If social media profiles are any indication, folks certainly appear to have more irons in the fire than ever before. LinkedIn profiles are starting to resemble laundry lists like this one I recently came across: “Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, Career Transition Coach, Business Strategist, Transformational Catalyst, Author, Speaker.”

Look, there’s a very good reason why athletes focus only on one position in one sport. That’s what it takes to make it in a competitive world. Olympians may take the gold in multiple events, but always in the same category. Granted, it makes sense to cast a wider net when they’re young, but the sooner they focus, the better.

Apple has long touted focus and discipline as key to its breakout success. Both Steve Jobs and Tim Cook have talked about the importance of doing only what the company does best and saying no to everything else. That’s why Apple can afford to control every aspect of its iconic products, from conceptual design to the customer experience.

Google is a different story. In the early days, its 10-point philosophy included, “It’s best to do one thing really, really well.” But when Eric Schmidt stepped down as CEO in 2011,  the company unleashed a dizzying array of moonshots, from the infamous self-driving car and Google Glass to Wi-Fi balloons and the Calico anti-aging project. For four long years, the search giant’s once high-flying stock barely kept pace with the Nasdaq.

Since hiring Morgan Stanley CFO Ruth Porat, it’s like night and day. The search giant reorganized as Alphabet to increase visibility of its non-Google operations – projects it now calls “other bets.” That provided some much-needed fiscal discipline and accountability, and shares of Alphabet have responded, rising 45% in just 15 months.

Every venture capitalist and startup founder will tell you the key to entrepreneurial success is focus and discipline. The same is true of your career. The sooner you figure out what to focus on doing and quit screwing around with everything else, the better.