When we think about generating ideas, starting and running a successful company or just about any small or big venture we think about abundance. We think of ‘more’. We think limitlessness.
We think more the number of resources, the better everything will be. More work hours. More ideas. More plans. More objectives.
Not just about tasks and plans, but even in day to day to interactions- ‘more’ is considered positive.
More agreement- better results. More encouragement- more work done. More power. More control. More responsibility. More people. More anything? Better. We think anything limitless is great.
But what if we told you that sometimes, less is better? Or in other words, rather than a free-flow of more ideas, more resources, more encouragement, more people sometimes it’s the ‘less’ that make things better? That sometimes setting limits, a cap of some kind is the way to making something more successful?
The principle of setting limits or imposing limitations for benefit is actually used in everything around us, right from music to sport. Each genre of music has its limits of acceptable melodies, pitches, instrumentation. Magic happens within these limits. Each sport has its rules- be it the number of overs in a cricket, to the literal ‘boundaries’. It is these rules and boundaries that make a sport enjoyable. What’s more, economics operates on this principle too: companies cannot offer limitlessly increased or decreased prices without leading to issues in the whole market.
Not just in music, sport and economics but in any enterprise, it’s the ‘less’ that produces better results.
Think of limited resources: A company with limited capital will find ways to make the best use of that capital after thinking things through. A company with excessive capital may end up spending it on ventures that may or may have been carefully thought out.
A city that has limited tourism spots will maintain that small number of tourism spots really well. A city with more tourism spots may maintain only a few well-known ones even if they have ample resources.
Think of limits in idea generation: A whole list of ideas will likely lead to chaos with no proper direction. There will be no room for trial and error since the time will be spent in trying one idea after another as quickly as possible to arrive at the ‘big’ successful idea. But just two or three limited ideas that seem realistic will lead to a more concrete plan, with enough room for trial and error for each idea.
You know how they say, that too many chefs spoil the dish. In some cases, too many choices! A candy-making company with four or five flavours was doing very well. They thought ‘why not add more flavours?’ going by the conventional understanding of ‘more is more’. They announced ten more flavours. All over the shops, the company now had close to twenty flavours. But contrary to what they had thought, more flavours did not lead to more sales or more popularity. In fact, the sales of that candy brand had gone down!
A survey was conducted which found out that the ‘more’ number of flavours had confused their customers. With so many flavours to choose from, the customers were overwhelmed and ended up not buying any candy at all. Naturally, the company decided to withdraw the more flavours and of course, the sales increased again.
When we start thinking about limits this way, we realise they are everywhere and they push us towards producing better work. We work only a limited number of hours a day to prevent burnout. Limitless working hours do not lead to more output. Offices hire only a limited number of people. Having more people doesn’t necessarily mean a job well done. Each one of us has only a limited number of responsibilities attached to our job description even if we might be capable of doing more. It is not ‘more and more’ but ‘less’ that help us remain productive, focused and successful. Less is actually more!