I’m reading the 7 habits of highly effective people, and it talks about balancing product and production capacity.

The product is what the car does for you – presenting you nicely to the world, and probably getting you to your destination on time.

The production capacity is how well the car does what it’s supposed to do: if it’s not clean, it doesn’t present you in a nice way, and if it doesn’t have fuel and a healthy motor, it won’t get you anywhere on time.

If you focus only on the product – driving – you’ll find that the production capacity falls away – you’ll have a dirty car, and it’ll run out of gas. Eventually, it’ll stop producing entirely.

If you focus only on the production capacity, however, you’ll polish your car every day, make sure its fully tanked at all times and so on, and you’ll never have time to drive anywhere – use the product.

Keeping a balance looks like an important thing to do indeed.