Simple and Boring is Best

I was having a rather passionate exchange with my basketball team this evening (translation, I was yelling) when I came across the idea of Simple and Boring.  I was tired of seeing my team constantly try to make something happen, trying to force the issue and being too impulsive.  I wanted them to slow things down and make the game simple.  On the next five plays they ran all they did was make very boring, basic passes and each one lead to an easy basket.  It was the combination of many simple, easy and yes, boring parts working together that yielded spectacular results.  Let's hope this translates into better efficiency tomorrow.

We had been spending countless hours and tons of energy trying to accomplish the goal of making baskets. When I explained that I wanted simple, easy passes, with nothing fancy and nothing forced, it just clicked for them and we scored at will.  I kept yelling simple and boring wins games.  Simple and Boring do a lot more than win games.  They lead to a successful life.

I heard of a gentleman in his sixties who has never had a household income over $60k in a year.  Yet he is on pace to retire a millionaire (or very close to it) in a decade or so.  He has never hit it big on a single stock, never won (or played to my knowledge) the lottery.  He didn't inherit a significant portion of his savings.  He has simply worked hard, saved and invested, and generally been very boring with his money.  Simple and boring have worked wonders for him.  His kids are through college, debt-free, he owns his paid for home and drives paid for cars.  He is winning.  He has been simple and boring.

Football Coach and Analyst Herm Edwards offered this advice once to rookies in the NFL "One House, One Car, One piece of jewelry and definitely One Women."  He said to keep life simple and boring off the field to maximize your potential on the field.  His advice in paraphrase is "Simple and Boring."

Simple and Boring keeps you off the front page, out of the limelight and allows you to make steady progress in life without undue distractions.  Simple and Boring has you home by midnight, away from drugs and alcohol and hanging around the right people.  Simple and Boring provides stability for you and those you lead.  Simple and Boring is the soil in which great things can grow.

If you want the organization you lead to flourish and grow make sure that you are keeping things simple and boring.  You don't want "drama" or problems to surround you.  A great local company where I live that embodies the simple and boring philosophy is Martin's Potato Rolls.  They make very few products and most of them are pretty plain and simple (and delicious).  Yet their company has exploded in growth and sales in the past decade or so.  Their products are simple, their philosophy is not flashy, but they deliver on their mission of creating great tasting bakery products.  They win with the simple and boring mindset.

Keep things simple and boring.  Then repeat each day.