Great By Choice — Discipline

I finished reading Great By Choice a few days ago, and I had some time to reflect on how the book applies to my life. As I read these books, I personally like to let everything just sit and simmer. I try to bridge the gap between the businesses mentioned and my personal life, and I try to think about how the concepts introduced can apply to the business of running my life.

The thing that most impressed me with Collins’ analysis of lucky companies is how initially unremarkable each of the companies were. Collin’s jumps back, time and time again, to the concept of “Level 5 ambition” and communal leadership (both of which he touched upon in his former works). But in Great By Choice, we find that successful companies have an extra element: discipline. Discipline — in the sense that enduring companies don’t reach for the risky, high-hanging fruit. In fact, many great and enduring companies don’t climb onto the slimmer branches at all — they stay lower on the thick boughs, doing the things that have worked for them in the past. Hitting average, and hitting it consistently, again and again, with discipline.

A case study frequently referenced in this book was that of Southwest, which managed to be profitable almost every year over the past thirty years (including 2001). Through recessions, airline bankruptcies, and 9/11, Herb Kelleher and Southwest trudged slowly and surely into the unknown. It didn’t matter what was going on in the world, because Southwest had several simple tenants they treated as their bible. They knew their tenants: fly (only) Boeing 737’s, maintain quick turn-around times on the tarmmat, and remain the low-cost airline. That kind of beautiful simplicity can only be grown organically from years of discipline.

This discipline is something that I personally need more of. I think I speak for many when I admit that there are frequently discrepancies between what we want to do and what we need to do. How great would it be if we always wanted what we needed? It’s a trivial statement — and one which we all are well aware of — but we need to learn to be disciplined.

Disciplined means that we are not over-ambitions, or over-eager. I’ve told myself I can’t always do what I want in the moment. And I’ve found that things are always easier in the beginning than in the middle or the end. A cliche “Life is a marathon, not a sprint,” is extremely relevant here — I’m not going to work less than I want, or harder than I need to.

When don’t work up to our expectations, we compensate by working more on other days. And when we work harder than we need to, we compensate by allowing ourselves to justify slacking off when hard work matters most. Discipline companies are like disciplined people: they work and do what they need to do; they set goals for themselves that mark progress rather than bursts of productivity.

Disciplined companies don’t burn out, and then get desperate after they realize they’ve missed the boat. They take it twenty miles a day, and never need that lucky boat to begin with.

So here’s my 20-mile march: I’ll write a blogpost every week, and it’ll be up by the end of the day, every Monday.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.