35 pages • 1-hour read
The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results
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Introduction, Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Introduction, Chapter 1 Summary: “The ONE Thing”
Gary Keller was watching the movie City Slickers when he got the idea that eventually led to The ONE Thing. In the movie, a character mentions that the secret to life is finding one thing of importance and sticking to it. Keller was at a time in his life when he felt like he had hit a wall and was failing to succeed. He had started a real estate business but felt overworked and overextended. Prompted by the line from City Slickers, Keller decided to make changes in his life to focus on what was most important and likely to lead to success. Keller stepped down as CEO of his company and set up a team of people to help him manage the business. These changes heralded a time of unprecedented growth for the company—as much as 40%, year over year. The secret, according to Keller, is to aim high with your goals but “go small” and focus at the same time. Keller has written The ONE Thing to describe this method in detail.
Introduction, Chapter 2 Summary: “The Domino Effect”
Research from Weijers Domino Productions developed a domino display that knocked almost 4.5 million dominoes down. Lorne Whitehead, writing in the American Journal of Physics, proved that a falling domino can knock down one that is 50% larger; that one can then knock down one 50% larger than it, and so on. In other words, falling dominoes can topple ever-larger dominos in a geometric progression (rather than a linear one). As a result, the size of the dominoes knocked down can quickly become massive; the 57th domino in such a line would almost cover the distance between the Earth and the Moon. Keller uses the enormous potential power of dominoes as a parable of how to be successful: Success is sequential and cumulative, not miraculous and instantaneous. Small, focused actions over time can lead to extraordinary results.
Introduction, Chapter 3 Summary: “Success Leaves Clues”
Keller points to the examples of companies like KFC and Coors, which have built highly successful businesses around marketing a single product. Google is another example, as the company centers on a single service—internet searches—which it uses to drive advertisement sales, its primary source of profits. Some businesses have a singular focus that may not be obvious. For instance, in Keller’s opinion the Star Wars franchise’s success stems from both movies and merchandise sales. Still other companies let a single product be their flagship, though that product may change over time. Apple, for example, once focused on marketing iMacs, then iPods, and then iPhones.
Focusing on one product is not enough to build a successful company, however. Great business leaders tend to have mentors who guide them. Keller lists examples ranging from Walt Disney’s brother Roy, Sam Walton’s father-in-law L. S. Robson, Albert Einstein’s teacher Max Talmud, and George Martin (who produced The Beatles). In each case, these mentors offered the business leaders financial support, mentorship, or crucial skills that led to their success. “No one is self-made” (19), Keller concludes. Above all, these mentors help business leaders focus their passions, which can ultimately lead to opportunities to create good in the world. Bill Gates, according to Keller, is the greatest example of a business leader who has utilized focus (on developing software) to lead to success and ultimately philanthropy through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which focuses on issues of world concern, such as global health.
Introduction, Chapters 1-3 Analysis
The prefatory chapters of The ONE Thing make clear that Keller hopes readers will find fulfilment in life or improvement as a person rather than simply achieve success in business. He admits early on that the path to writing the book started in his own struggles: “I was failing” (7), he writes. Keller mentions how he felt and shares his challenges to let readers know that emotions and personal struggles matter as much as the bottom line. At the same time, Keller emphasizes his credibility to encourage readers to trust his ideas. This is evident, for instance, when he mentions that his company achieved incredible success—as much as 40% growth, year over year—after it began to implement the methods he describes in The ONE Thing.
Chapters 1-3 discuss the foundational ideas the book explores, including Keller’s realization that success requires focus. He writes, “Where I’d had huge success, I had narrowed my concentration to one thing, and where my success varied, my focus had too” (9). Keller encourages readers to have big, far-reaching goals but to work toward achieving them through focused actions. The idea is that these small, focused ideas are cumulative and can in time lead to huge results: “The key is over time. Success is built sequentially. It’s one thing at a time” (16). For this reason, the image of dominoes falling one by one and knocking down larger and larger dominoes makes for an emblematic model.
Keller provides numerous examples of companies and individuals who have focused on products and ideas in ways that led to enormous successes. Some of these examples are large companies, such as KFC, Coors, and Apple. These examples suggest the kind of company that Keller admires. Other examples, like Alfred Einstein, George Martin, and Walt Disney, typify people who strove for and achieved excellence by focusing on their passions even in the face of setbacks. Further examples of philanthropists like Bill and Melinda Gates show how truly focusing on goals can lead to success in diverse fields. The breadth of these examples demonstrates that Keller’s ideas are broadly applicable.
The examples discussed in Chapters 1-3 also set the tone for The ONE Thing. Keller describes companies and individuals that have achieved success and analyzes why and how. He does not criticize other companies or tear apart their failures. This approach shows that Keller aims for a positive, constructive message—one that encourages readers to acknowledge mentors and others who help them along the way to success.
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