No one achieves greatness by becoming a generalist. You don't hone a skill by diluting your attention to its development. The only way to get to the next level is focus.
Our time is so specialised that we have people who know more and more or less and less.
The developing science departs at the same time more and more from its original scope and purpose and threatens to sacrifice its earlier unity and split into diverse branches.
Well, you've got to be known for something. The danger of extreme versatility is that you don't spring to mind for anything.
It's important to focus on what we do best and master one craft at a time.
The more specific you are, the more general it'll be.
Every man gets a narrower and narrower field of knowledge in which he must be an expert in order to compete with other people. The specialist knows more and more about less and less and finally knows everything about nothing.
It is much easier to try one's hand at many things than to concentrate one's powers on one thing.
Don't stop. Narrow your focus to one idea, and make it work. That will give birth to all of the others. All you can do is plant the seed and water it.
Don’t strive to be a well-rounded leader. Instead, discover your zone and stay there. Then delegate everything else.
My success, part of it certainly, is that I have focused in on a few things.
If I dabble in too many things and don't focus on channelizing my energy into one thing, I might mess it up.
For many people in the music conservatory world, the message was always, Focus! 'You can't do everything; you really need to specialize.' And especially at an early age, I ignored this advice.
Two tasks at the beginning of your life: to narrow your orbit more and more, and ever and again to check whether you are not in hiding somewhere outside your orbit.
As your life expands your focus expands or contracts.
I suppose I had these concerns but I really felt that I had to keep my scope very, very concentrated.
Once the world sees you as that one thing, and the better you are at that thing, the more you can only be that thing.
He who is wise puts aside all claims which may dissipate his attention, and confining himself to one branch excels in that.
I began tailoring my books to cater to one or another universe of readers. I found it incredibly boring; and frankly, it felt stultifying. I'd previously been in advertising. I felt if I was going to create something to fit a specific market, I might as well have stayed with advertising.
The more particular you make something, the more universal it becomes.
There's less clutter in the beverage category than in the music category. A lot less clutter.
Documentary films are created in an inverted funnel of declining possibility.
The more there is on offer, the more you don't want. Fifty options of cereal does not hone an epicurean expertise in the finer points of puffed rice, it murders appetite.
You can become really pigeon-holed in this industry.
My generation was advised to focus on one area to excel.
