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title: Our Business is Simple, but Not Easy description: [AFW M.1.48] Michael's Epiphany #48 published: true date: 2026-06-30T08:10:51.410Z tags: editor: markdown dateCreated: 2021-09-08T00:26:47.557Z

Simple ≠ Easy

An amazing number of people confuse the two, believing they are synonyms. They are not; in fact, we can make a case that they’re antonyms.

Getting in shape is simple, but not easy. You know what to do... don't eat carbs and exercise 5 days a week. But actually doing it consistently is not easy.

Our business is the same. It's simple: Prospect 1 - 4 new people a day. Conduct 2 - 4 new client appointments per week. Produce $2,500 in revenue per week. But actually doing it consistently is not easy.

It is not difficult to understand what needs to be done – what is difficult is to take action and doing it consistently.

  • Easy is easy. Easy is a minimum amount of effort to produce a result. Easy is no strain, no effort, no investment, no commitment. Easy is something many people desire. Easy work, where pay is disproportionate to effort. Easy intimacy, where your investment in another person is minimal. Easy life, where challenge is significantly less important than victory, where growth matters less than achievement, even if the achievement isn’t particularly important.

  • Simple is very hard. Simple is the removal of everything except what matters. Simple is the carving away of marble until the statue of David appears. Simple is minimalism; simple is removing complexity and distilling down things to their core essence. Simple is extremely hard to do well. It may seem easy at first, because there’s always some easy stuff to remove in the beginning, but as you carve away more and more, more and more skill and mastery is required, because you don’t want to remove needed things, nor do you want to remove the wrong things.

Still unclear? Easy is getting a digital camera, whipping it out, and taking pictures with it randomly. No skill or investment is required – it’s really easy! Simple is learning how to take photographs so that the essence of what you’re trying to convey shines through with nothing else getting in the way.

Easy is a momentum builder. Easy gets you those early, low-risk victories that you need in order to encourage you to keep going. Easy is what gets the customer to walk in the door and make their first purchase. Easy is what gets you to buy the digital camera in the first place and helps you take that first photo. Easy gets the ball rolling.

Once you’ve got that momentum, then focusing on simplicity and simplifying takes precedence. Removing all of the preconceptions, all of the obstacles to success, removing all the unneeded and unwanted, that absolutely becomes essential. But you’ll never get to the building of skill and achievement of mastery if you don’t see some easy wins at the beginning, will you?


Keep It Short and Simple (K.I.S.S.)

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"Everything must be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." -Albert Einstein

Read Nick Murray's ATY 082 March 23 - Illusion of Complexity PDF


KISS is an acronym for "Keep it simple, stupid" as a design principle noted by the U.S. Navy in 1960. The KISS principle states that most systems work best if they are kept simple rather than made complicated; therefore simplicity should be a key goal and complexity should be avoided.


Three Areas to "K.I.S.S."

There are three aspects of our business that you should apply the KISS philosophy to:

  1. The way that you communicate to your clients.
  2. Master the analogies, metaphors, one-liners, stories and other "keep it simple" techniques from Making a Comples Subject, Simple AFW P.4
  3. Presenting the finished plan AFW S.11. Instead of using 15-page reports, try 1 or 2 pages.

  1. Products and strategies should be simple. Don't be tempted to make what you do look complex to your client in an attempt to inflate your "worth." You'll increase your value more by making a seemingly complex subject, simple.
  2. Keep portfolio design simple (1 - 5 mutual funds). Visit Plan Design AFW S.10.
  3. Long-term, historically defensible, equity mutual funds are the solution for long-term investing. Period. Not ETFs, hedges, sector funds, options, futures, alternatives, etc.


  1. Procedures and systems of how you run your business. Take the time to use the tools that are available to you.
  2. Get all your data in electronic form and online.
  3. Use simple and free electronic tools.
  4. Learn to become proficient in using keyboard shortcuts (seriously).


Reasons Why Many Advisors Fail (they're looking for "easy")

  • Constantly jumping from one series of activities to another.
  • Looking for instant gratification instead of learning how to make the business work.
  • Not being consistent with their actions.
  • Not being congruent with their plan of action.
  • Doing repetitive work gets them bored or annoyed.