This is part 2 in the series of “How to Succeed in 2007.” This series is about my thoughts on the CNN Money Article “How to Succeed in 2007.” You may want to start with part 1.
Eric Schmidt
CEO, Google
SUCCEED WITH SIMPLICITY
“Silicon Valley companies have a tendency to develop these systems that rely on complexity. But it produces things like the personal computer running Windows. Google from the beginning focused on the simple search box, the simple search page.
We have the tiger by the tail in that we have this huge phenomenon of personalization. Now we need to make it simpler for people. We are trying to shape the innovation going forward from here and get things more integrated, make Google more integrated. This is a big change in the way we run the company. In the past the philosophy has been “get this done, get it built, and get it out.” But continuing that, we would end up with hundreds of products named X-Google, and people can only remember five products.”
I think the simplest way to sum up Eric Schmidt’s philosophy is K.I.S.S. – Keep It Simple Stupid. If you’re familiar with Google at all, you know that it was built on simplicity. A simple white page with a simple search box. That one page eventually took them to the top of the corporate world.
But, Google, in all of its creativeness, began to get a little complicated. It took a different route of trying to become all things to all people. (remember what I said about that yesterday?) You just can’t do that, it will tear you apart and drive you crazy.
So here’s how this applies to your personal finances – K.I.S.S. – Keep It Simple Stupid. I know, it’s very profound.
Here’s the thing, if you try to get all fancy and do things like interest only loans or transferring balances back and fourth between credit cards, you’ll end up loosing. Financial Freedom is all about creating a winning plan in the beginning and following that plan to the end. For help on that, check out my Budgets for Dummies series or my post on Reducing Debt With a Snowball.
What are your thoughts? Do you agree or have a different opinion? Let me know below!
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