Here at Agitator Global HQ we get lots and lots of press releases and requests to cover the next new thing. Payment systems. Crowd funding. Infographics. Video campaigns. Etc. Etc.

All this ‘new, best thing’ stuff reminds me of those pesky water bugs that scooted across the surface on the lakes and ponds of my youth. Here. There. Over there.

Mostly I’m reminded that these frequent temptations of the next new thing tossed at fundraisers like some siren’s song require both resistance and that all-important — but rare — attribute: FOCUS.

I know it’s tempting to range out and back like some hunting dog on the scent to try this digital This or That. Or suddenly allocate major effort to this magic social technique or that winning prospect research tool.

BUT… the wise — and successful — fundraiser will rely on the one trait that will always deliver success — FOCUS.

Over the years we’ve written a lot about strategy. Among our posts here, here and here. Our main points have been that true strategy has nothing to do with techniques. Rather it’s about focus. As we’ve noted:

• Strategy is about forcing a choice, stating what the organization is and is not doing. E.g. Focus.

• Strategy is clear, concise and focused. Just like good copy.

• Strategy is focusing on whether to turn left or right and not believing you can do both at the same time

What’s essential to the success of any strategy is FOCUS. The ability to discard anything that gets in the way of the clarity of limited and specific — and pinpoint — implementation.

If your strategy, for example, were to improve first year retention by 20%, why in the world would you spend time and money on a scattered social media campaign or seizing the latest offering from Google Grants.

There’re lots of temptation and bright and shiny things out there, but if you want to succeed you have to narrow it all down, determine how it fits (or doesn’t), and then FOCUS. And when you truly focus you’ll be able to eliminate even more choices.

I can guarantee you’ll never win by seizing the next new thing and wasting time on that. At least not until you’ve developed the capacity to focus.

As Steve Jobs so accurately noted:

“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on.  But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying ‘no’ to 1,000 things.”

What successes have you had — and what disasters have you avoided — because you were focused?

Roger