It’s simpler than you think.

Really.

And I don’t’ even care what “it” is.

As a person trying to be more or have more or build a certain kind of life or find our spiritual center or balance a balanced life – It’s simpler than you think.

As a company or organization trying to grow, build a marketing campaign, streamline business processes, build loyal and engaged employees, build a culture of creativity, design a broadcast facility, become more profitable – It’s simpler than you think.

I’ve been wrestling with this column for ages. Because in general, we don’t want to believe it’s’ true. For some absurd reason, we want to make everything complicated. And I’ve never had a good understanding why.  But at last, I think I understand.

A little background first. I worked primarily in the broadcast technology world for the first few decades of my career. I was part of the startup team for three different companies and I owned part of one of them. In each case we took two very complex things – high technology and building new businesses, and made it stupid simple.

Each grew to be national powerhouses in the industry. (Well, two of them did. The third one was bought out by a national powerhouse.)

The Lesson I Keep Learning

I can remember the first of those startups. There were four of us with an idea. The head of our little band, Kevin, met with the owner of the largest IT and networking firm in the state of Virginia about the possibility of them funding our startup.

The owner of the IT firm came with his entourage. Lawyers. Financial types. Operational gurus. The whole shmeal.  And on the other side of the table was Kevin.  “Tell us your plan.” the owner said. I know what he was expecting. Long involved business plans. Charts and graphs.

That’s not what he got.

Kevin said simply. “We intend to dominate the broadcast and AV business. We hire the best people and take better care of customers than anyone else.”

That was it. The whole enchilada. No charts. No graphs. No power points. No accounting projections or complex contracts. I give the IT owner credit. He got it. Take away all the jibber jabber and razzle-dazzle and that is how you build an organization. He funded us.

Today they are one of top two or three companies in the industry, with offices across the country and around the world.

I’ve seen the same thing play out both in the other two start-ups and was part of. I’ve seen it in the companies and organizations I have consulted with. Simple solutions create success.

I also see it in personal lives. Both in my work of the last five years coaching individuals to their own version of success, and in my work as a part-time pastor, the solutions are always simple.

Solutions are simple. People are complicated.

I am a student of success. I read about it. I pay attention to people and organizations that succeed. I often contact successful people just to pick their brain about what made that success happen. I have a huge bookshelf of self-improvement books that range from step by step manuals to law of attraction tomes. And here’s what all my study, experience and observation has taught me.

It’s simpler than you think.

And I don’t care what “it” is.

Everyone who has written a book on success, everyone who has sent you an invitation to a webinar promising success, every one day program or weekend seminar, every class, every program, every guru, they are pretty much saying the same thing.

Oh, they use different language but pay attention and they are all trying to tell us the same thing. Stuff is simpler than we think. Everything is.

Solutions are simple. People are complicated.  And we make things complicated. Way more than it needs to be. Mostly the only thing that gets in our way is ourselves. We don’t like to think that. But I’ve done what I do long enough to see the pattern.

We get in our own way.

Over and over again I see it. In individuals. In companies. In non-profits. In churches. in anyone who wants anything. The ones that trust the process that leads to success, succeed.  I don’t care if it’s my process, (blatantly stolen from everyone else out there) or someone else’s proven process.

When we do the simple things to get there, we get there. It’s never as hard as we think when we trust and act on a proven process. Except when we get in our own way.

So, where do you want to go? What do you want to be? It’s there. Stop making it so complicated. The solution is out there. It’s simpler than you think. Pick one and go.

Be well. Travel wisely,

Tom

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