Google Thing #2: It’s best do one thing really, really well.

Continuing our series on Google’s 10 Things We Know to Be True…

Let’s play a little word association game. I’ll list some people and organizations and you tell me the first thing that pops into your mind…

• Michael Jordan… … … basketball
• Billy Graham… … … evangelism
• Martin Luther King Jr… … … civil rights
• Habitat for Humanity… … … houses
• Compassion International… … … children
• Google… … …  search

All of these people and organizations are well known because they’ve changed the world. And they changed the world because they chose to focus on doing one thing really, really well.

Anti-label – anti-focus

I have great admiration for these people and organizations. And yet to be honest, time and again I find myself doing just the opposite.

Part of my problem is I really don’t want to be labeled. I don’t want to be known for just one thing because it feels so limiting.

I think I’m a pretty good blogger, but I don’t want to be know as just “the blog guy.” I’m also a follower of Jesus, a husband, a father, the CEO of OurChurch.Com, a baseball coach, a part of a church, and a tweeting, Octoberfest-hosting, soccer-playing dude.

And then there’s OurChurch.Com… we started out focused on churches, but that seemed to limiting so now we serve churches, schools, ministries and businesses.

A lot of churches try to avoid labels too. So, they have a full smorgasbord of ministries – men’s ministry, women’s ministry, recovery ministry, food pantry, missions, contemporary service, traditional service, scouts, etc

Not that there’s anything wrong with any of those ministries.

And there-in lies the challenge with focus

As 1 Corinthians 10:23 says

Everything is permissible, but not everything is helpful. -1 Corinthians 10:23

Or as Jim Colins says

Good is the enemy of great. -Jim Collins

Sometimes in trying to do too many things, we don’t do any of them really well.

Do Your Website Really Well

This is especially true of websites and online communication. Sometimes organizations try to put too much on their website and as a result make it really cluttered.

Sometimes we feel like we “have to” make the most of the latest communications tools – blogging, podcasting, Facebook, Twitter, mobile apps, live streaming, and more.

The truth is you’ll have more impact if you do one (or a few things) well rather than a lot of things poorly.

So, what do you feel led to focus on?

What do you have to eliminate in order to focus on that?