Charlie Munger Choose One Idea, Execute Relentlessly
edward.builds Charlie Munger once said, take a simple idea and take it seriously. 1,000 people who all want the...
That screenshot says it all: a wall of tiny dots slowly disappearing until only two are left at the finish line. Most people never start, most of the rest stall out, and the few who remain get yanked around by shiny objects. The reel is a funnel of quitters. Your job? Be one of the final two dots by choosing a single idea and beating on it daily.
The Picture in Your Head
Look at the colored rows of dots behind the creator: red dots vanish early as fear wins, green lines crawl forward at a snail’s pace, and purple lines zigzag off course chasing new toys. At the bottom, two lonely dots are labeled as the only ones who stayed locked on one path. That’s the real competitive landscape; you don’t need to out-genius 1,000 people, just outlast 998 of them.
How To Be The Last Dot Standing
- Pick one problem to solve and write it on a sticky note above your desk.
- Commit to a specific daily output metric: cold emails sent, videos posted, pitches made.
- Schedule a weekly review, not a weekly pivot; tweak execution, not the core idea.
- Create a “shiny object” parking lot where new ideas go to sit for 90 days before you touch them.
Companies That Chose One Thing And Hammered It
Canva built a massive brand by relentlessly focusing on making non-designers create decent graphics fast.
Dropbox grew by obsessing over simple file syncing and sharing instead of bloating into a dozen side products too early.
Basecamp became a cult favorite by saying no to feature creep and staying married to simple project management.