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Date: 2026-02-21 Tags: business - operating system - productivity
You need control to focus
To grow you need to focus. But focus only works, if it is complimented with conscious sacrifice and constant control over peripheral areas.
It cost me 2 million HUF to learn this.
Over the past two months, I’ve focused on developing the Hungarian market, fine-tuning marketing processes, and hiring a marketing manager. Meanwhile, the numbers for the Slovakian market slipped out of my field of vision.
I thought the cost controls were in place (bid caps on Meta, freelancer watching over Google), and the worst-case scenario was that we’d break even. When I finally checked the numbers, it turned out I’d lost nearly 2 million HUF in the market I thought was “under control.”
The mistake wasn’t in the prioritization itself. I focused on the highest leverage task long term.
The mistake was that I didn’t establish checkpoints for the shift in focus in the areas I wasn’t actively monitoring at the time.
Focus and control have to go hand in hand
Focus is resource allocation. You decide where to and where not to direct your attention, time, and energy.
Control stabilizes the outcome. It ensures that areas running in the background don’t fall behind.
If there is only focus, without control, then areas outside of focus decay. If there is only control, without focus, then fragmented operation remains: you touch on everything, but go deep into nothing. The two together bring lasting results.
Only in hindsight will it be obvious whether you chose the right thing to focus on, in the moment you will have doubts, but you should commit. If you don’t deliberatly chose what to focus on you will try to do everything, but achieve nothing.
An operating system that allows focus without risk
Focused work is essential for results, but that doesn’t mean background tasks should be completely neglect.
A system is needed that gives the freedom to dive deep into one area, without letting the rest slip through the cracks.
Every shift in focus should involve an explicit layer of oversight for the areas running in the background. Before I dive deep into anything, I establish metrics and assign accountability for the areas I’m not currently managing.
In my case, this means weekly, monthly, and quarterly review sessions on performance.
How do I know if I have the right system in place?
- The data needed for the review is easily accessible and trackable in a RAG structure.
- Weekly review completion rate = 100%.
- There are no metrics without a designated person in charge.
- The review should be documented to avoid just getting over with it and shared with the team to aid alignment.
This is one of the many steps of Building a business that runs without you.