The One Thing | Gary Keller

- Google has the search engine

- Colonel Sanders had KFC and one secret chicken recipe.
- Walt Disney had a brother who got him work in an art studio
- Sam Walton had a father-in-law who loaned him $20,000 to start his first retail business

The basis early in the book, ‘The One Thing’ by Gary Keller is that they key to getting extraordinary results is to find ‘THE ONE THING’ that will make the biggest impact on your company (or team’s) success. 

They show that ‘THE ONE THING’ shows up time and time again in the lives of successful people companies, whether it’s a company that focuses on one part of their business or a successful person who had one person in their life who made a significant difference along the way. 

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“Success demands singleness of purpose.”
- Vince Lombardi -

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Keller tells that through technology and innovation, the doors to the world have been flung open, creating endless opportunities, but also creating endless distractions keeping us away from what’s really important.

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“The unintended consequence of abundance is that we are bombarded with more information and choices in a day than our ancestors received in a lifetime.”
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As a result of the inundation of technology, we have to make sure that we understand and practice the rules of the Pareto Principle.  The 80/20 rule was a formula described by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto in the 19^th century when he discovered that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the people.

Keller advises us to go even deeper than the 80/20 rule and find the 1 thing that is the most important and began focusing on that, stating that research shows that multi-tasking is really a false truth that we have bought into and that success will follow when we focus on doing the single, most important thing without any distractions.

In The Classroom
As a Resource Algebra 1 teacher, I have identified that one thing: manipulating the variable.  The most important skill for academic success in Math from Algebra 1 on is being able to manipulate and solve for the variable in equations.  Everything that they will see and do beyond Algebra 1 will encompass that skill.  We spend as much time as necessary teaching that skill because if they can master that, they can have success moving forward.

On The Court
As a coach, I am still searching for that one thing, but at least for this season, I have discovered some truths about THE ONE THING that has helped me find success early in my career:

I have learned how important it is to have ONE THING that you can always come back to offensively and defensively that is simple, role-defining, and can grow.

If you were to ask me this past summer, ‘what kind of offense do you want to run,’ I would have told you motion because it’s too hard to scout because of its lack of patterns.  I then realized that no matter what I have started out trying to teach or implement, I have always gone back to some kind of ball-screen, continuity offense, opting for familiarity and consistency over the spontaneity of motion.  Aside from the disparity of teaching time, having each player focus on their ONE ROLE has really helped them have a sense of purpose on the court and a clearly defined role.  From there, like Apple beginning with the Macs and transitioning into the iMacs to the iTunes to iPods to iPhones, we have been able to grow the offense with the players’ skillset; but it always starts with perfecting that one thing.

Now, I am still searching for that ONE THING.  Right now, I have it narrowed to 3 – ball screen continuity offense, win the turnover battle and win the rebound battle.  If there was ONE THING that I emphasize over anything else, it is probably to PLAY HARD, but even in terms of motto’s, I’ve adopted the old school motto of Play Hard, Play Smart, and Play Together (and Have Fun), so in all aspects, I’m still working on that ONE THING.

But in the meantime, as Keller suggests, my true ONE THING is to discover that ONE THING.