Book Review: The One Thing by Gary Keller

The subtitle of Gary Keller’s book, The One Thing, explains why it’s both a NY Times and WSJ bestseller: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results. Though the premise may sound simple, Keller skillfully takes the reader through a “more or less” process in support of his premise that doing more is the real culprit because it yields less in return. A book for achievers who want to know why long ‘to do’ lists need to be replaced by short success lists, readers also learn the “truths” that derail success and the “lies” that sustain success with the brilliance of The One Thing.  

Why are we reading this book?

Based on the author’s backstory, Keller has created a method for personalizing a response to that  “something’s got to give” feeling. How? He states that a narrowed concentration is how to accomplish plenty. Targeted “big Ideas” suggestions at the end of each chapter are terrific tools and simple mantras such as “go small,” “go extreme” and “say no.” Hand-drawn diagrams and printing with arrows create a feeling that Keller’s at the whiteboard giving a one-on-one demo. Definitely what we call unique storytelling.

Backstory:

The seed was planted for the book’s assertion ten years before it was published in 2001. As he described it, Keller was watching the hit movie, City Slickers, when a particular scene rocked his world. Curly, the gritty cowboy, asked Mitch, the city slicker, if he knew the secret of life. When Mitch said he didn’t know, Curly answered: “Just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don’t mean sh*t.” Keller leveraged that one scene into The One Thing.

Challenge:

Until he switched gears, Keller fervently practiced the “lies” that many think are the “truths” for success. For Keller that meant “to get as tightly wound up as possible each morning, set myself on fire, and then open the door and fly through the day, unwinding on the world, until I literally burnt out.” His results? He did get success, and then it made him sick. Eventually he was sick of success. So he ditched the “lies,” joined overachievers anonymous and abandoned the “success tactics” that really didn’t work. He replaced them with the real truth—a simple path to productivity and success.

Solution:

A soundbite from Andrew Carnegie’s address to students at Curry Commercial College in Pittsburgh on June 23, 1885, and a Mark Twain quote about the secret of getting started, are the foundation for Keller’s Focusing Question: What’s the one thing I can do…such that by doing it…everything else will be easier or unnecessary? He claims the answer provides a big-picture map (Where am I going?) and small-focus compass (What’s my one thing right now?). He claims The Focusing Question is the reliable key to always achieve the answers you seek, no matter how big or small.

Summary:

Keller summarizes how to achieve extraordinary results with three required commitments: seek mastery mindset, pursue the very best ways of doing things, and possess a willingness to be held accountable to doing everything possible to achieve your ONE thing. Whether it’s figuring out the one thing you want most in life or to achieve each day, determine the one thing and do that. It’s like setting up dominoes in a row. If done correctly, when the first one is pushed, they all fall over.