From: alexhormozi
Most people do the wrong things, making it relatively easy to outperform 99% of others in business [00:00:00]. Much business growth advice is counterintuitive, as if it were straightforward, people would easily implement it and grow [00:00:28]. The key to significant progress lies in focusing resources on the singular path that yields the greatest growth [00:01:57].
The Business as a Tree: Focusing Resources
Imagine your business as a tree, where its height over time represents your revenue [00:00:30]. Offshoots or “B+ problems” — small, often easy-to-solve issues like adding to an email sequence or optimizing a funnel — divert resources from the main trunk [00:00:49]. While addressing these offshoots might feel like progress, they consume resources without significantly increasing overall revenue [00:01:07].
By “pruning” these offshoots, meaning cutting off unnecessary tasks, all resources can flow directly into the main trunk, allowing the business to grow vertically [00:01:17]. This biblical concept highlights that a healthy tree is one that is pruned [00:01:42]. The focus should not be on the quantity of tasks completed, but on the amount of growth each task generates [00:01:33].
Commitment: The Elimination of Alternatives
Commitment is defined as the elimination of alternatives [00:01:50]. To achieve significant growth, it’s crucial to focus all resources on the single growth path that offers the most leverage [00:01:57]. This means consciously removing other options to fully dedicate effort to the primary objective [00:14:08].
Prioritizing A+ Problems over B+ Problems
Often, individuals tackle “B+ problems” or “C-level problems” because they are quick, known, and provide a sense of immediate accomplishment or “fast dopamine” [00:02:32]. These are typically items on a to-do list that are easy to knock out [00:02:13]. However, this often leaves the “A+ problem” — the most important, complex, and impactful task — untouched at the end of the day [00:02:17].
A+ problems are generally more complex, involve more variables, require deeper analysis, and demand iteration to solve [00:02:40]. Solving the A+ problem can make all other items on a list irrelevant by comparison, or reveal that other perceived priorities are no longer important [00:02:26]. Spending time on B+ and C-level issues before tackling the A+ problem can lead to wasted effort if the primary solution nullifies the need for those lesser tasks [00:07:14].
The Theory of Constraints
Everything discussed aligns with the Theory of Constraints, which posits that there is typically one limiting factor preventing a business’s growth [00:07:23]. Once this constraint is identified and eliminated, the business can scale significantly [00:07:32].
“The goal of strategy… is to prioritize limited resources against unlimited opportunities.” [00:08:07]
Businesses have countless avenues for growth (e.g., TikTok ads, LinkedIn outbound, sales conversion optimization) [00:08:18]. An excellent strategist identifies the single most impactful action that would render all other efforts insignificant [00:08:41]. This is akin to choosing a “big wheel” that, with one revolution, achieves more than many turns of a “tiny wheel” [00:09:36]. Moving fastest in terms of distance covered means getting the most for every unit of effort, not just doing things quickly [00:09:04].
Addressing the “Unknown” in A+ Problems
A significant reason A+ problems are often avoided is their inherent “unknown” nature; we don’t always know where to start or how the solution will look [00:20:26]. Unlike B+ problems, where the steps are clear, solving A+ problems often begins with learning and understanding the problem itself [00:21:06].
The approach to an unknown A+ problem is to “pull the thread” — take the first step, and the subsequent steps will become clearer [00:21:20]. You don’t need to know the entire path to begin [00:21:32].
Tactical Implementation Steps
Here’s a four-step process to apply this prioritization and problem-solving framework:
- Prioritize: Identify the one most important thing that, if done, would make everything else less significant or irrelevant [00:14:42].
- Create Urgency: Establish clear deadlines and increase the frequency of meetings or check-ins to communicate the heightened importance [00:14:49]. For instance, if a priority has a weekly cadence, meetings should be more frequent, perhaps daily or twice a day [00:11:20]. This also helps in establishing faster feedback loops [00:11:43].
- Eliminate Everything Else: Explicitly state that all other current tasks are less important than the priority and that some “fires” must be allowed to burn [00:15:00]. It’s unfair to demand high priority without relieving teams of other duties [00:15:03].
- Solve and Reassess: Focus intensely on solving the single problem. Once it’s resolved, reassess the business landscape, as the solution may have changed the relevance of other issues, and then re-prioritize [00:15:13].
Supporting Tactics
- Remove Blame: When initiating a major turnaround, explicitly state that past issues are not anyone’s fault, and questions about “who made this happen” are for understanding, not blaming [00:03:41]. This reduces pressure and fosters team alignment [00:04:08].
- Empower Team to Say “No”: Give team members explicit permission to tell others that less critical issues can wait because the priority is paramount [00:04:16]. Remind them that the leader is accountable for the overall outcome [00:04:33].
- Increase Communication Frequency: Beyond meetings, regular check-ins (e.g., hourly) demonstrate urgency and commitment [00:12:13].
- Make Winning Obvious: Create dashboards, progress markers, or thermometers to visually show progress towards the goal [00:12:46]. This reinforces positive behavior for the entire team [00:12:54].
- Incentivize: Create a “pot of gold” at the end of the rainbow, offering a reward (e.g., team dinner, day off) upon completion of the priority [00:13:02]. This provides an immediate benefit for the team [00:13:18].
- Information Transparency: Increase information sharing across the company, including financials, conversion rates, and profit margins [00:21:54]. When everyone knows the same information, more people can contribute to solving problems [00:22:02]. This also reduces irrational fears about sharing sensitive data [00:22:29].
- Review Existing Workloads: Regularly review team members’ agendas to identify tasks they might still be working on or thinking about from past priorities [00:23:05]. Clearly table or eliminate irrelevant tasks to ensure focus on the current priority [00:23:35]. This reduces anxiety and provides clear direction [00:23:44].
Case Studies in Prioritization
Paid Ads Team Pixel Issue
A portfolio company’s paid ads team struggled with a pixel tracking issue for three weeks due to distractions across various funnels and sequences [00:04:50]. The fundamental problem was that if the pixel wasn’t tracking correctly, no amount of conversion rate optimization would matter [00:05:04].
The approach was:
- Prioritize: The pixel issue was identified as the only thing to focus on, ignoring other aesthetic or conversion problems [00:05:51].
- Create Urgency: Meetings were scheduled for the end of the day, with explicit instructions to skip other meetings [00:15:59].
- Eliminate Everything Else: Team members were told their regular daily tasks were secondary to fixing the pixel [00:16:18].
- Solve and Reassess: Each step for pixel repair was assigned with minute-based timelines, and a follow-up meeting was set to show off the completed work [00:16:24]. After the pixel fix, a reassessment would determine the next priority [00:17:28].
This laser focus ensures that “bridges” are fully built to cross the “river” into revenue, rather than having a “graveyard of half-built bridges” where resources are spent but no income is generated [00:17:40].
Sales Event Show-Up Rate
A portfolio company experienced a low show-up rate for its sales events, impacting revenue [00:18:18]. The team complained about lead quality, but analysis showed that simply achieving the industry standard show-up rate would increase revenue by 35% and more than triple profit [00:18:36].
Since no other initiative could offer such a return with no risk in 30 days, getting the show-up rate up became the sole company priority [00:19:06]. This singular focus, despite minor customer service or sales department issues, led to the business growing by over 35% [00:19:21]. This demonstrates the power of prioritization to make other, less critical problems irrelevant [00:19:46].
“The continuous parade of little wins never moves the ball forward. You never get the breakthroughs. You never get the growth.” [00:20:19]
Prioritizing A+ problems, even if they are “big hairy problems” soaked in the unknown, is essential for breakthrough growth [00:20:26].