The power of focus

There's an analogy that changed the way I think about business, and it goes like this:

⛏️ Dig 1 hole 30 metres deep. you hit gold.
Dig 30 holes 1 metre deep. you get nothing.

It sounds simple. Almost obvious. But the number of business owners who ignore this is staggering. And if you're being honest with yourself, you've probably done it too.

The shiny object trap

It usually starts with good intentions. You launch your website. It's going well. Then someone tells you that you need to be on TikTok. So you start posting videos. Then you hear SEO is important, so you write a few blog posts. Then someone mentions paid ads. Then email marketing. Then a podcast. Then LinkedIn.

Six months later, you have a half-finished website, a TikTok with 47 followers, three blog posts nobody read, a paused ad campaign, an email list of 12 people, one podcast episode, and a LinkedIn profile you update once a quarter.

Thirty holes. One metre deep. No gold.

What "going deep" actually looks like

Going deep means picking one channel, one strategy, one thing. and giving it enough time, energy, and consistency to actually produce results. It means resisting every distraction until that one thing is working.

Here's what it looks like in practice:

• You choose paid ads. You commit to running campaigns for 3–6 months. You optimise weekly. You test different ads, refine your keywords, improve your landing pages. You track every lead. After 4 months, you've got a reliable system generating 20 enquiries a month. Now you consider adding a second channel.
• You choose SEO. You invest in proper keyword research. You publish one high-quality page a month. You fix your technical foundations. You build your Google Business Profile. After 6 months, you're ranking on page one for your key terms. Now you consider adding paid ads on top.
• You choose referrals. You build a proper referral programme. You ask every happy customer. You follow up. You create a system around it. After 3 months, referrals are your biggest lead source. Now you layer on something else.

The pattern is always the same: one thing, done properly, until it works. Then add the next.

Put all your eggs in one basket

Andrew Carnegie. the man who built one of the largest fortunes in history. was famous for saying: "Put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket."

Everyone told him to diversify. Spread the risk. He did the opposite. He poured everything into steel. his time, his capital, his focus. and he watched it like a hawk. He didn't dabble in railways and oil and textiles on the side. He went all-in on one thing, mastered it, and became the richest man in the world.

The conventional wisdom says diversify. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. But Carnegie understood something most people don't: diversification is a defence against ignorance. If you actually know what you're doing. if you're paying attention, adapting, and going deep. concentration is far more powerful.

For your business, this means the same thing. Don't hedge your bets across six marketing channels you barely understand. Pick the one that makes the most sense, learn it inside out, and watch that basket.

Why I struggle with this

Because going deep is boring. It's repetitive. It doesn't feel productive the way starting something new does. Starting a TikTok account feels exciting on day one. Optimising your ad campaigns for the 47th time does not.

But the business owners who win. the ones who build something real. are almost always the ones who stayed boring for long enough. They chose one thing, stuck with it through the messy middle, and let compounding do its work. Just like Carnegie with steel.

This applies beyond marketing

The same principle applies to everything in business:

• Services. The painter who also does landscaping, handyman work, and pressure washing will always lose to the painter who only does painting. and does it brilliantly.
• Products. The business that launches 20 average products will always lose to the one that launches 3 exceptional ones.
• Markets. The business that tries to serve everyone serves no one. The one that owns a niche builds a reputation.

Depth beats breadth. Every time.

How to apply this right now

Ask yourself three questions:

1. What's the one thing that could move the needle most? Not all channels are equal. For most local service businesses, that's usually a great website paired with paid ads or SEO. Not TikTok.
2. Am I giving it enough time? Most things worth doing take 3–6 months to show real results. If you're quitting after 3 weeks, you're not giving yourself a fair shot.
3. What do I need to stop doing? This is the hard one. Killing a project feels like failure. But every "maybe" channel you keep alive is stealing energy from the one that could actually work.

The bottom line

Stop digging new holes. Pick one. Go deep. Give it 6 months of real, focused effort. When it's working. and only then. start the next one.

That's how you hit gold.