<p>During my Year of Many Errors I received a good piece of advice: &ldquo;Try things until something comes easily.&rdquo; I took the advice to heart and tried four or five different business ideas over the next 18 months. I&rsquo;d give each one a shot for two or three months, mix in a little bit of freelance work so I could continue scraping by and paying the bills, and repeat the process.</p><p>Eventually, I found &ldquo;something that came easily&rdquo; and I was able to focus on building one business rather than trying to find an idea. In other words, I was able to simplify.</p><p>This was the first thing I discovered about figuring out what to focus on. If you want to master and deeply understand the core fundamentals of a task you may, paradoxically, need to start by casting a very wide net. By trying many different things, you can get a sense of what comes more easily to you and set yourself up for success. It is much easier to focus on something that&rsquo;s working than struggle along with a bad idea.</p>