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A Kick-Ass Half Is Better Than A Half-Ass Whole

Bob Moesta

Inspired by on Lenny's Podcast

QuickBooks has half the features and double the price of its competitors - and wins anyway.

Bob Moesta shares a lesson from Jason Fried: 'A kick-ass half is better than a half-ass whole.' He points to QuickBooks as proof - half the features, double the price, massive market share. Why? Because they do the core job excellently instead of doing everything poorly.

This applies perfectly to parenting. The parent who tries to do everything - Pinterest-worthy birthday parties, gourmet lunches, educational activities, spotless house, quality time, volunteer at school, exercise daily - ends up doing everything at 50%. Half-assed hole.

The parent who picks two or three things and does them really well? Kick-ass half. Maybe you're amazing at bedtime routines and family dinners, but you buy store-bought cupcakes for birthdays. That's fine. That's better than fine.

You can't be excellent at everything. Pick what matters most and be excellent at that. Let the rest be good enough.

Choose what to suck at.

allprioritiesfocusperfectionismsimplicity

PM Theme: Focus / doing less better

Parenting Theme: Prioritizing what matters

Quotes that inspired this tip
Actually a kick-ass half is better than a half-ass hole, and that's what Jason talks about. But the reality is like if you look at QuickBooks, QuickBooks has half the features and double the price.Bob Moesta · 00:10:34
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