Focus

Focus has become performative.

It’s easy now to confuse focus with visible effort. Locking in. Grinding. Posting about routines. Broadcasting intensity. It looks disciplined. It feels productive. But most of the time, it’s just motion.

Real focus is quieter. It’s not something you announce. It’s the kind of attention where other things simply stop showing up in your mental field. Not because you’re trying hard to ignore them, but because they no longer feel relevant.

That kind of focus is rare. And it’s powerful.

Busy Is Not Effective

One of the most persistent myths in modern work culture is that effort equals impact.

It doesn’t.

Some of the most successful people I know have completely different daily rhythms. Some go to bed at 2am and wake up at 10am. Others are asleep by 7pm and up at 5am. Jeff Bezos famously doesn’t schedule meetings early and spends his mornings pottering around.

There is no common routine. No shared morning ritual. No universal sleep schedule.

What they do have in common is focus.

Not hustle. Not long hours for their own sake. Focus.

Morning routines are not the point. Waking up early is not the point. Grinding is not the point. If those things help you concentrate, fine. If they don’t, they’re just noise dressed up as discipline.

Focus Requires Sacrifice

Over the last few months, I’ve been stripping things back. Deleting news feeds. Cutting newsletters. Reducing outside inputs. Less commentary, less background noise, less ambient opinion.

It’s uncomfortable.

You feel like you’re flying blind. There’s a constant low-level anxiety that you’re missing something important. That something big is happening and you’re not plugged in.

That discomfort is part of the cost.

I’ve also started saying no to catch-ups and conversations that aren’t clearly additive to what I’m building. Not because those discussions aren’t interesting. Not because the people aren’t smart. But because attention is finite.

Right now, my focus is Ironstead. Building a production house for America. That’s the mission. Anything that doesn’t move that forward directly has to be questioned.

This is the part people struggle with. Focus doesn’t just mean choosing what to work on. It means choosing what not to engage with, even when it would be enjoyable, flattering, or socially easy.

Focus Is Not Performative

There’s a moment where Steve Jobs is talking to Jony Ive about focus in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKBVLzOZyLw

In it, Jobs explains that focus isn’t about saying yes. It’s about saying no. Not to bad ideas, but to good ones. Lots of them.

That’s the version of focus people tend to skip over.

You don’t get real focus without giving things up. You don’t get it without leaving upside on the table. You don’t get it without occasionally disappointing people. It costs something.

Rick Rubin talks about protecting the creative thread above everything else. Elon Musk, chaotic as he can appear, operates in deep, singular modes of attention when it matters. When they’re focused, they’re not hedging. They’re not half-in. They’re not splitting their time between competing priorities.

And the compounding effect is real.

The last few months have been some of the most productive I’ve ever experienced. Not because I’m working more hours, but because my attention isn’t fractured.

The Last One Percent Is the Hardest

Peter Thiel has a useful way of framing this. Getting from average to good isn’t that hard. Getting from good to excellent is harder. Getting from excellent to exceptional is brutal.

That final one percent demands total focus on one thing.

You cannot split yourself in two and expect either path to fully work. At that level, divided attention is fatal. Progress slows dramatically when you try to keep multiple options alive.

Most people don’t fail because they lack intelligence or drive. They fail because they hedge. They keep doors open. They stay busy so they don’t have to fully commit.

Focus, Fear, and Waiting

A lot of distraction comes from fear.

Fear of missing out. Fear of being wrong. Fear that if this doesn’t work, there’s nothing else waiting. So people scan constantly. They keep one foot on the path and one foot looking for exits.

There’s a different idea in the Bible.

In Matthew 6:33, Jesus says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” This teaching sits within a broader passage about anxiety and provision. Earlier, he says:

“Consider the ravens: they do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them.” (Luke 12:24)

And a few verses later:

“Consider how the wildflowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.” (Matthew 6:28–29)

The point is not passivity. It’s priority. When focus is aligned correctly, anxiety loses its grip. Provision follows alignment, not constant scanning.

Loss of focus often comes from an inability to wait.

The Israelites didn’t turn to false gods because they lacked instruction. They did it because the waiting became unbearable. While Moses was on Mount Sinai, receiving the law, the people grew impatient. They demanded something immediate, visible, controllable.

So they made the golden calf. (Exodus 32:1–4)

The gap did them in.

We do the same thing now. When progress feels slow or unclear, we fill the space with noise. News. Meetings. Opinions. Updates. Motion feels safer than waiting.

But waiting is often where focus is tested.

Choosing the Narrow Path

Focus is not about intensity. It’s about exclusion.

It’s choosing one direction and letting other things fall away. It’s getting comfortable with quiet. It’s trusting that if you commit fully, clarity will come without constant external reassurance.

In a world designed to fragment attention, focus is a real advantage. More than that, it’s a decision about what you believe matters.

Not everything deserves your time.

Some things need to disappear entirely.

That’s where real work begins.