现实有多残酷，大多数创业者并不了解

透视企业家（Entrepreneur Insiders）是一个在线社区，美国创业界最睿智、最有影响力的一些大咖会在这里及时回答与创业和职业有关的问题。今天的问题是：你做过最棒的商业决策是什么？回答者是社会化营销管理公司Extole的首席执行官马修·罗切。

我是连续创业者，而且非常热爱产品，所以很喜欢探究重大的、覆盖范围广也比较概念化的问题。酝酿创意时似乎机会无限，创业者也总是希望一次性解决所有问题。而经验告诉我，想成功就要先处理好一件事，再想解决所有问题。以下是一些需要谨记的：

做大不一定能做好。

2003年，我成立了一家名叫Offermatica的公司，当时痛下决心要解决个性化服务问题。说起来可能有点吓人但其实没什么人知道，我们曾经研发出一款生产通用内容的机器，可以分析访客特征后根据偏好更新内容。我们花了12个月制造机器，随后向潜在客户推广，可是收入为零。

我们渴望成功，但客户并不太认可。在一次头脑风暴会议上，我们讨论了展示两个版本的内容，想看客户更喜欢哪个，结果是彻底修改。我们不再盯着宏大的个人化软件领域，而是收缩工作重心，拿出了SaaS（软件即服务）的A/B测试解决方案。

转向A/B测试是我做过的最佳决策。但就像很多伟大的构想一样，起初董事会并不认可而是抵制。不过形势越来越明朗，客户不喜欢我们最初的创意，于是我们决定坚持调整。既然针对性提供内容解决不了问题，A/B测试没准有机会。调整后，我们从零收入挤入硅谷增长最快的初创公司之列，三年里增长率达500%。调整工作重心收获成功，成功带来了资源，有了资源，我们才能研发出复杂的个性化搜索引擎，也正是我们一开始想做的事。

为求成功，必须随机应变

我常看到一些公司囿于伟大梦想错失进军某个行业的大好机会。他们往往忽视了一点：解决所有人的问题前，首先解决好部分人的问题。有时大家凭直觉会先一头扎到某个问题里去，其实更合乎逻辑的是，从小处着手，有策略性地循序渐进，慢慢摸索出更强大的解决方案。

我现在这家公司也有宏伟的愿景：打造一个独立于社交网络的营销平台，改变零售商与客户互动的方式。但在此愿景下我们像Offermatica的头12个月一样，一个客户也没有。虽然听起来远大，但愿景没法解决行业现时的问题，而且所需投资远超很多企业愿意的投入。因此，我们退而求其次，专注提供让客户能通过宣传品牌获得新客户的营销平台。和当年在Offermatica一样，我们还是满怀耐心志向远大，坚信平台会成功，随着市场发展最终实现宏大的蓝图。

人们容易错误地认为追求大而全是成功的捷径。然而真正的上策是有策略地分配精力，集中解决单个问题。如果你已经走上寻找万灵药的歧路，及时调整为时未晚。重新评估、缩小目标范围、调整工作重心，奋斗定能结出硕果。 （财富中文网）

作者：Matthew Roche

译者：Pessy

审校:夏林

The Entrepreneur Insiders network is an online community where the most thoughtful and influential people in America’s startup scene contribute answers to timely questions about entrepreneurship and careers. Today’s answer to the question “What’s one of the best business decisions you’ve ever made?” is written by Matthew Roche, CEO of Extole.

As a serial entrepreneur (and product enthusiast), it’s tempting to pinpoint and dig into the biggest, broadest, most conceptual problem you can identify. The opportunities seem endless during this initial phase of ideation, and it’s natural to want to solve for every issue associated with the problem at hand. But my experience has shown me that in order to succeed, it’s imperative to solve for a single thing before you solve for everything. Here are some points to keep in mind:

Bigger isn’t always better

When I founded a company called Offermatica in 2003, I was fiercely determined to solve for personalization. Though massively intimidating and relatively unknown, we set out to build a universal content machine that understood individual visitors and updated content accordingly based on their specific preferences. We spent 12 months building and pitching this concept to prospective customers. But we generated zero dollars in revenue.

We were hungry for success, but our product wasn’t resonating with customers. During a brainstorm session, a side conversation about showcasing two versions of content to determine the best option for our customers led to a complete overhaul of our product. We narrowed our focus within the vast personalization playing field, and it led to a SaaS A/B testing solution.

The decision to shift to A/B testing was the best I’ve ever made. But like most big ideas, it was initially met with more resistance by our board than agreement. But as it became apparent that customers couldn’t connect with our initial vision, we made the decision to boldly commit to our new focus. Targeting wouldn’t solve their problems, but A/B testing could. The shift allowed us to move from a company with zero sales to one of the fastest-growing startups in Silicon Valley, achieving 500% growth over three years. Our focus generated success, success generated resources, and resources ultimately enabled us to build what became a huge personalization engine—our original vision.

You have to shift for success

I constantly see companies that become so wrapped up in their vision that they miss a great entry point into an industry. They lose sight of the fact that before you can do something for everyone, you need to do something for someone. Though it sometimes feels more intuitive to dive head first into a problem, it’s actually far more logical to start small and strategically chip away until you can offer a bigger solution.

At my current company, we have a lofty vision that we’d ultimately like to solve for: We want to build a marketing platform that is independent of a social network and can transform how retailers interact with their customers. But that vision will get us exactly as many customers as we had during the first 12 months at Offermatica: zero. Though it sounds great, it won’t solve for today’s industry issues, and is a much bigger investment than many companies are currently willing to make. So we’ve dialed it back and are currently focused on providing a marketing platform that enables our clients to acquire new customers through their brand advocates. With the same patience and ambition we had at Offermatica, I’m confident that our success and the growth of the market will eventually allow us to solve for the bigger picture.

It’s easy to be fooled by the notion that doing it all will put you on the fastest route to success. But the best way to achieve a favorable outcome is to strategically place your efforts into solving a singular issue. And if you’ve already started down the all-encompassing path, it’s never too late to turn yourself around. Reevaluating, narrowing, and refocusing will allow you to change the outcome of your efforts for the better.