When Jobs took back his throne in 1997, Apple was a shell of what it once was. It was facing bankruptcy with over $1 billion in losses and just 90-days of cash left. During his exile, Apple had released a number of failing products that were bleeding the company dry. So what did Jobs do? He got ruthless. He cut anything and everything that wasn’t profitable or necessary. He pulled the plug on the LaserWriter Printer, shuttered the QuickTake Camera, slashed the Newton MessagePad and canned the game console Pippin. Jobs then refocused his company’s efforts and resources on just two product categories: Desktops and Laptops. To say Jobs’ ruthlessness was effective is an understatement. By the end of the following year, Apple was once again profitable. When things aren’t going well for us in life or business, our natural reaction is to do more. But, doing more only prevents us from focusing our full attention on the one or two things that truly matter. Do less. Be ruthless about doing less.