There’s a quiet superpower that too many founders overlook. It doesn’t require charisma, capital, or a killer pitch deck. It doesn’t show up on a P&L. And yet, it might be the most transformational move you can make for your business and yourself: subtraction.

Not addition. Not hustle. Not doing more. Subtraction.

Because what you don’t do determines what you can do. And if everything matters, nothing does.

Most founders are running a 100-tab browser in their brain. Context switching. Decision fatigue.  Back-to-back Teams and Zoom meetings. In a world where bandwidth is the bottleneck, the boldest move is to get brutally clear on what deserves your energy—and cut the rest.

That’s what Ruthless Focus is all about. Not the focus you talk about in a team offsite, and forget by Monday. But the lived, operational kind. The kind that shows up in your calendar, budget, leadership, and habits.

We use the 80/20 lens as a constant filter. What’s the 20% of inputs (projects, people, decisions) that are driving 80% of the results? And just as importantly, what’s the 20% creating 80% of your stress, drag, and delay? It’s the Pareto Principle. 

That second question matters just as much. Ruthless focus isn’t just about maximizing ROI. It’s about reducing unnecessary friction so you can move with greater velocity and clarity.

And here’s the thing: subtraction is hard. Harder than addition. It requires judgment. Boundaries. Saying no to things that once felt like opportunities. Closing open loops. Letting go of being all things to all people.

But subtraction is how you make room. For deep work. For clear decisions. For ideas to marinate. For your team to align. For the things that actually matter to move forward.

One of the tools we use in Tardigrade Coaching is the 80/20 Reflection:

• What’s the 20% of your work that’s driving 80% of the outcomes?

• What’s the 20% that’s driving 80% of the stress or drag?

• What are you ready to delete, delegate, or delay?

• What are you ready to double down on?

If you want to make meaningful progress, don’t just make another to-do list. Make a stop-doing list.

Ruthless focus isn’t about being cold or rigid. It’s about being honest. Clear. Bold enough to say: this is what matters most. And everything else? It can wait.

You don’t build a high-performance business by juggling more. You build it by aligning your time, team, and tools around what matters most—and letting the rest go.

Let that be your work this week.

Say no more often.
So you can move what matters.