Focus, or Not

I have been working and studying in USA for a couple of weeks now. I revisited USA after a decade. I am looking at the country with more experienced and educated eyes now.

I don’t see these guys are genius. They are not more hard working either. But each individual here does very good at what he does. They focus on a single area, and be expert of that. When you have a working system based on trust, when components add up to form synergy, you are better off focusing on your niche.

In a developing economy where almost nothing is built you need to build everything from the scratch. You almost end up building every component of the system to reach to a sustainable model. Is this efficient? Surely not. But you have no other choice. That is why Muhammad Yunus, starting with micro credit, ended up founding so many businesses, and now talking about even more. That is why great entrepreneurs like Sir Abed, Akij and Samson H Choudhury built so many businesses. That is why Henry Ford ended up integrating from mining to retailing.

Now that they have other pieces of the system working, they can really focus on a single piece. Keep doing whatever they are good at. Excel on that.

We, on the other hand, are still at the Henry Ford phase. We got to be generalist, keep integrating forward and backward. You can’t imagine the first human being on earth, Adam, was a specialist, can you? He was a generalist!

When no working system exists you need a good number of generalists to build one.

What happened is happened, why can’t we move forward?

Couple of weeks ago I met one of my relatives who was actively involved in Chhatro Shibir, a student politics wing of Jamaat-e-Islam. Many of the leaders of Jamaat-e-Islam supported West Pakistan during 1971 liberation war in Bangladesh.

My relative was born after 1971, same like me. He showed his frustration of recent war crime trial and oppression of ruling party on Islamic activists and madrasah students. “What happened 40 years back, is happened. Why can’t we move forward?”

I thought he was a good guy in heart, but had a different view. I thought it was easy to comment, “ What happened is happened,” while you or any of your family was not directly affected. I thought if I killed your family and after 40 years ask you to forget and move ahead, you can’t. I thought if someone’s entire family except him is murdered, you can’t expect him to think rationally. I thought we can’t go ahead unless we resolve old issues. I thought precedence of justice is necessary to build an atmosphere of trust and brotherhood. I thought righteousness, law and order is a prerequisite for business and prosperity.

A killing ground in Dhaka during 1971 genocide, that  killed 300,000 or more. 

Recently I read an article where Pakistani cricketer Imran Khan voiced a similar concern. Past unresolved issue hinders future progress. It is true for Pakistan. It is true for Bangladesh. It is true for individuals.

You can’t live, love and move ahead with hatred in your heart.

Focus

Sometimes it is hard to focus. Really? Sometimes?

Okay, most of the time. At least for me, it is most of the time. And from my experience I can say that many people suffers from similar problem.

Didn't someone in the Brand Forum said, "Branding is sacrificing."? In other words branding means focusing to a single space to your customer's mind. Same principle holds true for personal branding.

I played a lot with my life, and I don't recommend others do the same. But when you don't have enough information to reach to the right decision, you choose the option you think is the best. There are people who can stick to their path and make that right. I wasn't very good at it.

To put it in euphemisms: there are other set of people who are bold enough to spot the wrong decision, acknowledge that, and moves away to a better option. These people take risk, embrace change and challenge status quo. I dare to say, I am one of them. Is it too much of euphemism?