In the end it comes down to the fact that you simply can’t serve two masters. Each of the thousands of decisions that must be made in running a successful business must, in the end, be governed by one overriding criteria—which course of action will maximize the ultimate profitability of the undertaking. This is similar to war. All of the decisions must ultimately be judged in light of which course is most likely to result in victory.

Whenever decisions are made for secondary motivation, the war is lost. The Nazi decision to utilize valuable resources to keep operating the concentration camps when those resources were needed to thwart the Allied invasion helped ensure Hitler’s defeat. Similarly, the decision to attack Russia because of Hitler’s racial hatred of Slavic peoples was self-defeating and insane. For purposes of this discussion, however, it was incorrect because it was made for reasons other than actually winning the war. The American decision not to blockade North Vietnam or invade and destroy their military strongholds early in the war doomed us to years of pointless carnage. Once the decisions of battle were made with an eye on domestic and global politics and power relationships, rather than with an eye on winning, we would have been much better off to pack up our men and go home.

This is not a recent phenomenon. The British decision to spend the winter of 1777 in Philadelphia rather than out in the field in pursuit of the colonists sealed their fate, and it was motivated not by military genius but by the leadership’s preference for the diversions of Philadelphia society.

In business this is even more true, because the competition is usually more numerous, more motivated, and smarter than you are. It’s hard enough to field an army of draftees against career military people even when you are focused. Good businesspeople are single-minded in their pursuit of excellence and profit. Japan’s rise is not the result of superior intellect or capital base. It is, rather, the result of highly focused action, with a simple goal: the long-term profitability and global dominance of their companies. They were hungry and dangerous competition for former leaders of the American automotive industry, who may have been focused on corporate politics, stock option plans, or skiing in Aspen. Those in Tokyo were working day and night for the profitability of their ventures. Just look at the result.

I would like to disabuse people of one of the most ridiculous myths that has been nurtured and promulgated by the American business press. Often you’ll see the head of some company that makes skis or surfboards posing on the slopes in full regalia or in bathing trunks on the beach, surfboard in hand. The captions and the stories in our great business magazines go on to tell how the founder wasn’t really interested in business. He was just a good ol’ boy who loved to ski or surf or whatever, but his equipment just wasn’t working right, so he designed something better. Soon all of his surf or ski bum friends wanted him to make one for them too, and they even pitched in to help the reluctant entrepreneur. Next thing you know—poof!—they’re the hottest athletic goods manufacturer in the world. Even better, they’re all zillionaires, but they still spend most of their days just skiing or surfing and living the life of Riley. The subtle point of these stories is that the key to success is not the single-minded, obsessive pursuit of excellence and fanatic attention to the bottom line, it’s just that if you do what you enjoy the most, success will come to you. Bullshit.