How Less Can Be More + Highest Point of Contribution

From the link: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/08/the_disciplined_pursuit_of_less.html

Why don't successful people and organizations automatically become very successful? One important explanation is due to what I call "the clarity paradox," which can be summed up in four predictable phases:

Phase 1: When we really have clarity of purpose, it leads to success.
Phase 2: When we have success, it leads to more options and opportunities.
Phase 3: When we have increased options and opportunities, it leads to diffused efforts.
Phase 4: Diffused efforts undermine the very clarity that led to our success in the first place.

Curiously, and overstating the point in order to make it:
Success can be a catalyst for failure.

What can we do to avoid the clarity paradox and continue our upward momentum? Here are three suggestions:

1. Is this the absolute right thing to do?
2. What is essential? Eliminate the non-essential
3. Develop detatchment: Don't get attached to objects, people or tasks so much that it destroys productivity when you can not pull yourself away from it to focus on other essential tasks.