Don’t confuse simple with trivial
Felix Dennis, an unusually colourful British entrepreneur and the founder of Maxim magazine (and many other magazines), in his book How to get rich cites an example of a simple five-point recipe that helped create one of the most successful businesses on Earth. Whose simple five-point recipe was it? Ray Kroc’s for McDonalds, the most successful fast food biz in the world:
1. Standardize the food and prices.
2. Franchise the outlets.
3. Produce the food swiftly in clean surroundings.
4. Offer value for money.
5. Market the whole shebang relentlessly.
Sounds pretty simple. Maybe simple is good, eh?
Be careful however not to confuse simple with trivial.
Here’s how most dictionaries define the word trivial:
Trivial (triv·i·al)
adj.
1. Of little significance or value.
2. Ordinary; commonplace.
My 2¢: Just because something is simple that doesn’t mean it’s trivial.
P.S. “McDonald’s begat an industry because a 52-year-old mixer salesman understood that we don’t dine—we eat and run.” That’s how TIME magazine once simply described Ray Kroc’s genius.
So simple, so easy to read and so hard to do.