For four decades these two mammoth retailers have done battle in the marketplace, essentially selling the same goods to the same audience. Wal-Mart of course has gone from being a small country store, servicing the rural communities of America to become the world’s biggest retailer. With close to 3,000 stores throughout the world, and over 1.2 million employees, on a single day last fall the company’s worldwide revenue was $1.43 billion. That’s billion, with a “B”. On one day!

Kmart on the other hand, has struggled to find its way through the complexity of business. For a while it was one of the nation’s foremost retailers, but then it began to stumble. One leader after another came to the table, trying one strategy after another. Each seemed, for a moment, to have the answer. But in the end nothing has worked. Between 1990 and 2000, Kmart’s market share plunged from 30 percent to 17 percent, while Wal-Mart’s rose from 30 to 55 percent. Deep in debt, with losses mounting, in 2002 K-mart was forced to seek bankruptcy protection.

Why the difference? These companies sell essentially the same stuff to essentially the same customer!

Although there are copious reasons why these companies have had their good or bad fortunes, one message seems to cry out louder than all the others: Focus.

Wal-Mart decided it was going to be the best discount retailer in the world, and that meant providing its customers with reasonable goods at rock bottom prices. In order to do this, it had to have its operational systems finely honed. Inventory turns became the most important statistic in the company. Every manager paid attention and contributed their ideas to improving the number. Over time, the company has become the undisputed champion of the world in leveraging its inventory turns. No one has ever done it better than Wal-Mart. What does this mean to the customer? Wherever a Wal-Mart store is located the cost of living drops approximately 16% in the local communities! And Wal-Mart has never parted from its narrow focus to be the best discount retailer in the world.

On the other hand, Kmart had no focus. It tried to be all things to all people. Not trusting that it could squeeze more money from the narrow market of discount retailing, it chose to diversify. In a major detour from its core business, Kmart became a specialty retailer, buying such stores as Builders Square, OfficeMax, Payless Drug Stores, The Sports Authority, the Borders Group, Waldensbooks, and Pace Membership Warehouses. These were businesses servicing clients in niches Kmart knew nothing about. Its focus was nowhere, certainly not in its stores, where it was increasingly less able to compete. Kmart was known for nothing. It has no focus, and fewer customers.

The same principle applies in the direct selling industry. Whether you’re on the management side of a business, or on the distributor side, your success is pretty much based upon how well you focus on One Thing. The real world examples of this principle are the best testimony of its validity:

At the end of the day, our lives would be more joyful and less stressed if we chose to abide by Henry David Thoreau’s counsel to “simplify, simplify, simplify.” We can do this by deciding what we are, and what we are not, and doing that One Thing well.