“要是时间多些，我就能写封短点的信了。”这句话揭露真相的手法老道，难怪很多人因此误以为它出自美国幽默大师马克·吐温。不过，一众有名的思想家——从希腊哲学家西塞罗、美国社会活动家马丁·路德·金、美国国父本杰明·富兰克林到美国哲学家亨利·戴维·梭罗都说过类似的话。

有报道称，有人问美国前总统伍德罗·威尔逊准备个人演讲花多长时间时，他说十分钟的演讲要花两周准备，半小时的演讲只用一周。他说：“如果讲多久都行，我根本不用准备，现在就能开讲。”

简练比冗长珍贵。简明比复杂价值高得多。很多关键领域里都是越少越好。

现在更是如此。专心做自己擅长的事乃成功的关键。不论是经营事业、企业，还是对外沟通交流，都要遵守该原则。遗憾的是，反其道行之的人日益增多，尤其一些雄心勃勃的企业家手头工作越来越多，结果精力太过分散，问他们“你做什么工作”五秒都回答不出来。一旦如此，失败就不远了。

如今，越来越多人放弃企业里的工作，选择看似自由和灵活的创业生活。问题是他们并没有把集中精力成立创新的初创公司，只是加入日益庞大的零工经济队伍，涉猎业务不少，却都浅尝辄止。

数据是惊人的。美国劳动力参与率和新企业成立数量都已经或接近几十年来最低水平。据《华尔街日报》报道，普林斯顿大学的研究显示，自由职业者在劳动力中占比激增，由十年前的10%升至16%。

为什么有问题？简单来说就是影响生产率。职业咨询公司MBO Partners最近的一份报告称，自由职业者对美国GDP的贡献仅占7%，换言之，自由职业者的生产率还不到全职员工的一半。这真的是个问题。

这里讨论的自由职业者可不仅包括共享用车公司Uber的签约司机、共享租房平台Airbnb的房东和手工艺品电商平台Etsy的商家。当前自主创业的潮流横跨多个行业、不同地区和人群。人们通常做多份兼职打零工谋生。这就是问题所在。

打的零工越多，培养独特抢手的技能机会就越少，基本不可能精通某个领域。打多少份零工算太多？超过一份就算。

如果把社交媒体的个人介绍页面当成指标可以发现，人们手头兼顾的工作比以往多多了。职业社交网站LinkedIn上的个人简介开始变得洋洋洒洒，名头都是一长串，最近我就看到有人这样自我介绍：企业家、慈善家、转职教练、商业策略师、企业转型专家、作家和演说家。

要知道，职业体育运动员专攻某项运动中某个细分项目是有道理的。只有精通才有可能在竞争激烈的赛场上获胜。参加奥林匹克的选手是可能摘得多枚金牌，但肯定在同一类项目里。当然，运动员年轻时多尝试也不无道理，但越早专攻某个领域获得好成绩的机会越高。

苹果公司向来以专注和守原则闻名于世，这正是取得突破性成功的关键。苹果之父史蒂夫·乔布斯和现任苹果首席执行官蒂姆·库克都曾谈到，对苹果来说，关键是只专注公司最擅长的领域，其他都不碰。这就是为何苹果从概念设计到客户体验全方位都能做到掌控产品。

谷歌跟苹果不太一样。成立初期，谷歌的十大企业哲学中有一条提到“能把一件事做到极致是最棒的”。不过埃里克·施密特2011年卸下首席执行官职位后，谷歌启动了一系列令人眼花缭乱的大项目，比如臭名昭著的自动驾驶汽车，谷歌智能眼镜Google Glass，利用热气球建立Wi-Fi的Project Loon，研究抗衰老技术的Calico。长达四年时间里，涨幅曾所向披靡的谷歌股价几乎跟纳指同步。

2015年，谷歌聘请了前摩根士丹利首席财务官露丝·波拉特，由此风格逆转。谷歌重组为新控股公司Alphabet，也理顺了非主营业务，现在统称为“其他投资”。公司财政纪律性更强，增强问责机制。Alphabet的股价随之走高，短短15个月涨幅达45%。

每位风险资本家和初创公司的创始人都会说，创业成功的关键是专注和原则。职业生涯同样道理。越早找到应该专注的领域越好，别把心思浪费在其他没意义的事上。（财富中文网）

译者：Pessy

“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 many important 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 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 to research from Princeton University reported in the Wall Street Journal.

Why is that a problem? In a word, productivity. A recent 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.