In one of his characteristically brilliant essays, Paul Graham recently wrote:
I think most people have one top idea in their mind at any given time. That’s the idea their thoughts will drift toward when they’re allowed to drift freely. And this idea will thus tend to get all the benefit of that type of thinking, while others are starved of it. Which means it’s a disaster to let the wrong idea become the top one in your mind.
The importance of focus in a startup, or any other business for that matter, is such a basic principle that no one disagrees with it, but it is still such a difficult thing to get right. One of the reasons is that you don’t want to stifle innovation, and some of the best ideas can come from a completely random project you went off to do in your spare time.
Whatever your feelings are about side projects that take you off your main focus, it is important to recognize them for what they are: distractions. This doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad, but let’s call it what it is — these projects distract you from your “top idea.”
For the products I’m responsible for at Yola, we have name for such distractions. We call them “squirrel projects.” If you’ve seen the movie Up, you’ll probably immediately know what I’m talking about. If not, here’s a refresher:
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