In 1940, Admiral Harold Stark faced an impossible choice. Germany had conquered France and was battling Britain in the air. In the Pacific, Japan had invaded China and allied with Nazi Germany. To US military planners, it looked like America might soon be fighting wars on two fronts simultaneously.
Stark understood something most leaders miss: you can’t fight two wars at once and win both.
His memo to President Roosevelt was brutally clear: “If Britain wins decisively against Germany we could win everywhere; but if she loses, the problem confronting us would be very great; and, while we might not lose everywhere, we might, possibly, not win anywhere.”
Roosevelt chose Stark’s recommendation—focus the majority of resources on Europe while defending in the Pacific. It became known as “Plan Dog,” and this strategic focus helped the Allies win World War II.
Fast-forward to 2020. A startup called Quibi raised $1.75 billion—more than most countries’ annual budgets—to revolutionize mobile entertainment. Founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg (the Disney executive behind The Lion King who co-founded DreamWorks) and Meg Whitman (former eBay CEO), it promised premium TV shows designed for your phone. Six months later, it was dead.
What went wrong? Quibi tried to fight Netflix (premium content), TikTok (short-form mobile videos), and YouTube (accessible platform) simultaneously. They had everything—Chrissy Teigen, Kevin Hart, Jennifer Lopez, Liam Hemsworth, Sophie Turner, basically everyone you’d recognize, and $1.75 billion in funding. What they didn’t have was focus.
Compare that to Dollar Shave Club. They could have battled Gillette on blade technology, retail presence, and premium positioning. Instead, they chose one battlefield: subscription convenience with humor. “Our blades are f***ing great” became legendary marketing. They sold to Unilever for $1 billion in 2016.
The difference? Dollar Shave Club understood Stark’s principle—choose your war or lose all of them.
Modern leaders face the same trap. FOMO drives them to compete everywhere at once. They want to dominate their core market while expanding internationally while launching new products while improving operations. It feels strategic. It’s actually suicide.
As Stark knew, resources are always limited. Stretch them across multiple fronts, and you’ll excel at nothing. Concentrate them on the battlefield that matters most, and you might just win everything.
The question isn’t whether you can afford to focus. It’s whether you can afford not to.
Choose your battlefield. Everything else is just expensive distraction.