Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication

Author: Leonardo da Vinci

Translation: Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Simple is beautiful. Complex is ugly. The more you have, the more you want and the more complex things get. People believe that big business needs to be complicated – but it doesn’t. We make it complicated ourselves because we think that this is what is needed for success. Big doesn’t have to be complex. Often, small and simple is more powerful than big and complex. I am always running into this trap of complexity and I forget how beautiful simple can be. How hard it is to achieve too… My problem is that I often try to accomplish too many things at the same time, in the end – I accomplish nothing, or very little comapred to what I could have if only I had more focus. Leonardo da Vinci, without discussion – a genius – knew this secret of simplicity, even though his work seemed complex and it is and was, he still managed to take something complex and simplify it. That is art. To take a complex idea and bring it to life in the simplest possible way.

The most beautiful things in life can be simple. And as your life progresses, you tend to make it more complicated and harder instead of easier and simpler. Having many things requires to spend time on using and maintaining these things. They limit you. They end up owning you and complicating your life. This often means that you lose the ability to think clearly… your mind is always racing to solve so many problems, think up so many solutions and juggle everyday problems around… then you feel like it’s been months since you took a breath of fresh air – all because you race into complexity, which is rarely the solution. You must be able to see the bigger picture, to focus on what really counts, what really brings results and what your real priority should be. Only then, once you know this, you can make things simpler.

I strive to simplify life, not complicated it. This doesn’t mean that your life should be limited, on the contrary. Simplicity can give you a life of abundance if you use your time wisely. If you are able to tell the difference between what is important and what is not important – or irrelevant. We often spend time doing pointless things, we spend so much energy on things that are not bringing us any real results… So many time waisters, so many things fighting for our attention…

Honestly I believe that when you don’t have this kind of crystal clear focus, it’s usually because you are not that sure what you really want. You think you know – but you don’t – because you don’t know WHY exactly you want something. It’s not just ” I want XYZ millions or billions” – the question is why? What is behind it? Once you can define that, you might realize that the way you are trying to attain your goal is working AGAINST you, not for you.

I’ll use myself as an example… I want money, lots of it. But why? For years I didn’t really ask myself this question clearly, I always knew I wanted money, but I never looked for a deeper meaning. It seemed that whenever I had money – I spent it!

So maybe I didn’t really want money that much after all. Maybe I wanted something else. Then I asked myself – why do I want money? Because I want freedom. The ability to do whatever I want whenever I want it without having any financial restrictions. Traveling for a year. Chilling on the Maldives for months, never having a boss, having total freedom of my time – reading books, writing, learning something meaningful, being able to do what I love. Then, what is it that I love? Either way, money wasn’t the real goal, the real goal was and is freedom, and the pursuit of money, just for money’s sake – only takes away my freedom. It takes away my time and energy, making me focused on achieving money – not freedom. But when you simplify things and know the real reason why you want something you see that you can strive for that directly, and bypass what you think you want.

How do I achieve freedom? I create something that offers long term, passive value to people. Maybe, at some point in the future, that might be this website. The internet gives you the ability to get freedom – you can work from anywhere, anytime and create wealth for others, which brings wealth back to you. What I love to do? I love to write. I may not be that good at it, yet, but I will with time and practice. They say you need to do something for about 10 000 hours to master it. So, if I write for 3 hours each day – I only need another 10 years to master writing. This is the only thing I need to focus on then, creating wealth by writing. That is simplicity, knowing what you really want and why – then going for it directly.

I am working on a big business project now and it isn’t working out entirely how I wanted it to work out. Why? Because it’s too complex. We wanted to be everything to everybody instead of something meaninful to a few. Quality is always more important than quantity… then over time you can grow. Simplicity is essential, simplicity and focus.

I will strive to further simplify all aspects of my life and create good habits that help you automate certain things, so you spend less time and energy on them. I think you should do the same. See how and where you can cut down on waste and what really brings you results in life. Find out why you want what you want and understand your desires better. Want what you have, and want less. There’s a quote I love from an uknown author saying “The richest man is not he who has the most but he who needs the least.” That quote in itself also has a hint to simplicity.

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