Hello, and happy Tuesday! A bit of a late post, but I wanted to get this one out while it is still somewhat fresh.

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The rocket launch that wasn’t

If you’ve been paying attention to the news over the last few days, you probably heard about the Boeing Starliner.

If not, a quick recap: about a decade ago, Boeing took up the challenge to help NASA rely less on Russian partners to take astronauts and equipment to and from the International Space Station. Their first launch was set to occur earlier this week, but was scrapped minutes before ignition due to a faulty power unit.

It’s a perfect encapsulation of Boeing’s struggles in recent years.

In Bloomberg News, Thomas Black writes:

He’s 100% right. Boeing’s leadership has repeatedly struggled over the past few years. From the 737 Max killing hundreds of passengers to doors falling off of planes in the past year, the company is suffering seriously.

To be clear, the problem is not one of engineering: it is one of poor quality control, weak leadership, and a lack of focus.

In an effort to win every contract it can, Boeing flails at new opportunities, losing focus on how to deliver on the commitments it has already made. The result is cost overruns, delays, and sometimes death.

But the focus problem is not Boeing’s alone.

Generational levels of bag-fumbling

Another company that struggles massively with focusing on delivering a quality product is Zoom.

During the pandemic, Zoom was given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to seize the initiative, carve out a moat in the video conferencing space, and build a high-performing product that competitors couldn’t touch.

Instead, they created this abomination:

Zoom is no longer an incredible video conferencing platform; it is a mediocre video conferencing app that is also an abysmal email client, a nearly useless document collaboration tool, a bloated call center service, a weird room reservation interface, and a substandard events hosting platform.

Zoom tried to become the Jack of all trades. In doing so, they’ve become not only the master of none, but the fool of most.

And it has cost them & their shareholders billions of dollars:

Now, don’t get me wrong—some of this is obviously due to the end of the pandemic. People have gone back to the office, and video conferencing has become less of a necessity.

But other companies that serve remote work clients haven’t suffered the same fate. Remote & hybrid event planning/recording platform CVent saw significant gains after remote work ended. Microsoft Teams has seen exponential growth for years. And communication platforms like Discord and Slack have continued to grow as well. Zoom is struggling because Zoom is unfocused.

This also isn't just a business problem; it's a political one as well.

The everything movement

Let's get something straight: climate change is real and is man-made, or at the absolute very least man-exacerbated. If you don't believe this, there are other pieces of writing that will serve you better than this one.

That being said, I don't know if there's a greater opponent of addressing climate change than climate change activists. Why?

Take a look at the image below and tell me what the focus of the protest is. Is it housing? Defending the police? Or is it climate change legislation?

By including a wide variety of policy preferences in a platform and labelling all of them “climate Justice” activists have diluted the focus on, y'know, climate change.

Now, climate activism doesn't just mean reducing greenhouse gas emissions or addressing coral bleaching, but gender and racial equality, defending the police, and apparently freeing Palestine?

Don’t get me wrong—you’re allowed to support any of these causes, even if we disagree on some of the specifics. But it is quite a bit foolish to try to make everything climate-related. It waters down climate change discussions as well as the discussions that are being made into something they are not.

The term “intersectionality” is used a lot to describe this kind of politics, especially in discussions of equality/rights. But I want to point something out for you. Take a look at this Venn diagram that comes up when you search “intersectionality”:

The most intersectional part of these groupings, the very middle sliver, is the absolute smallest portion of the entire image. Not only does unconsidered intersectionality dilute your movement, it also makes the field of would-be allies smaller.

No longer do you get to work with someone who wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; instead, you must only work with someone who wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions AND defunding the police AND withdraw from international defense and trade discussions AND want to overthrow capitalism (whatever that is supposed to mean). You doom your movement to irrelevance.

And while climate change activists are resigning themselves to short-term irrelevance, there are others that are willfully consigning themselves to the dustbin of history.

Others like Donald Trump.

The Weathervane Politician

There is a famous quote that is attributed to French politician Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin: “There go the people; I must follow them for I am their leader.”

There is no better example of this type of “leader” than the 45th President.

I mean, let’s just go over some of his claimed beliefs:

To some, he’s a faithful Christian leader who released his own “Trump Bible” because of his dedication to conservative Christianity. To them, he is the man that is going to “put a stop to the alphabet mafia” or implement whatever flavor of Christian Nationalism they subscribe to.

But he’s also the man that claims to be the most pro-LGBTQ president in history. He has talked plenty of times about LGBTQ issues, and props himself up as some kind of messiah for this group. That is, at least until the next time he appears on stage with Jerry Falwell or Charlie Kirk.

He’s also the man who is so hungry to position himself as pro-Israel that he claims he will deport any foreign-born student who is pro-Palestine…

… while also courting the likes of neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes, who denies the Holocaust and actively spreads blood libel about Jews.

And we can’t forget that this is the man who has the NRA bend over backwards to support him…

… while calling for the very policies opposed by the NRA on a whim.

Again, I’m not debating the policies themselves in isolation; I’m talking about the fact that Trump’s lack of focus on a clear set of policies leaves him vacillating between opposite positions on any given topic, depending on who he last spoke with.

This kind of behavior not only puts the country at danger (especially considering the crop of individuals willing to work in a second Trump administration has fallen from C-tier to the dregs of Washington nobodies and theonomist grifters), but also ensures that Trump’s legacy will be one of a man unmoored from principle.

We view Lincoln as a strong proponent for the Union, and later for abolition. Teddy Roosevelt was the king of conservation. FDR will be remembered for the New Deal, Kennedy for putting a man on the moon, and Reagan for crumbling the Soviet Union.

Trump will not be remembered by many in future generations.

And those who do remember him will likely view him as a celebrity figure instead of a politician. When they look at Trump, they won’t see a central policy or a list of accomplishments; they’ll see a merch table at a swap meet full of garish, made in China flags and t-shirts.

We need focus

Focus is the jet fuel that propels any business, movement, or politician forward. It is the lifeblood of a leader.

Most leaders are not the best at the jobs of those they lead. A general is not going to outrun the sergeant who just got out of Ranger school. Rather, the role of the leader is to identify a path and focus on that path, no matter what.

Almost anyone can do the work. Not everyone can consistently ensure that the work that gets done is the work that needs to get done.

John Wooden once said to “Never mistake activity for achievement.”

The discipline to have a set of principles that set you apart from the rest of the pack and stick to them is not a common one. But in business, in politics, and in the things that matter in life, it is necessary to achieve anything worth remembering.

We should not only strive to have this vision ourselves; we should demand it of those that lead us in the workplace, in the government, and everywhere in between.