Your focus determines your reality

Several of members of the Wheeler family are training for the 25th Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati, Ohio later this Spring.  Rather than running outside in the dark and cold weather, I've been spending a lot of time on the treadmill this winter.  I usually pass the time by watching one of the Great Courses or most recently one of the the MasterClass videos.  I am currently watching the MasterClass by Bob Iger, the former and once again current CEO at The Walt Disney Company.  It's been pretty good so far, which doesn't surprise me because I really enjoyed his book on leadership, The Ride of a Lifetime. 

One of Iger's MasterClass videos starts with a scene from the 1999 movie, "The Phantom Menace", Episode 1 in the Star Wars canon.  In this particular scene, the Jedi Master Qui Gon Jinn tells a young Anakin Skywalker, "Always remember, your focus determines your reality."  Iger follows the video clip with a discussion on his lengthy interview process for the CEO position at Disney.  His first admonition was to always be true to yourself, stating "If you can't be true to yourself, how can you be true to others?"  His second admonition, paraphrasing the Master Jedi, "Stay focused."

Iger had a friend who happened to be a political consultant help him prepare for the series of interviews with Disney's board members.  When Iger started to list his key strategic priorities for Disney, his friend told him to stop at three (Iger could have listed five or six).  It's all about focus.  As Iger suggested, if you have more than three strategic priorities, you tend to get lost.  More importantly, your customers and employees get lost too.

Iger proposed three strategic imperatives for Disney that he would prioritize and focus upon as the new CEO:

1. Invest most of Disney's capital in high-quality branded content (i.e, creativity)

2. Use technology to make more compelling content and to reach people in more innovative ways.

3. Grow globally, deepening connection to markets around the world.

That's it.  Everything Iger did as the CEO boiled down to these three priorities.  Was he successful?  I will let you be the judge of that, but consider that during his tenure as CEO from 2005-2020, Disney acquired Pixar, Marvel Entertainment, Lucasfilm, and 21st Century Fox.  During his 15 years as CEO, Disney increased its market capitalization fivefold.  Following his retirement in 2020, he was replaced by Bob Chapek, though Disney brought him back as CEO just recently.

"Always remember, your focus determines your reality."