The Proverbial Eggs in a Basket

It's morning on a mid-summer's day. The sun is just over the horizon, casting its happy beams across the land, yet not high enough that it's too hot to be running around outside.

And there you are, skipping around happily, through the meadow, smelling the pretty flowers just opening up for a busy day of hosting butterflies and bees. You're on your way back from the chicken coop, heading back to the house with the eggs you collected, but you decided to take the long way to enjoy tiptoeing through the fields of flowers.

Okay, so I know you're thinking, hey, wait, I'm not a six year old girl living in 1890! But, just grin and bear it for a few more moments as I approach the point...

You're smiling and giggling as you dance your way through the greenery...




...until you stub your toe on the gun of a plastic Army man your brother must have left behind when he was playing.

Never mind how your brother had a plastic Army man in 1890. Don't over-think this!

You grab your foot with your right hand, dropping the basket of eggs you were holding. Several eggs broke as they fell out and hit the ground.

Your mother is going to be very cross with you!

Fortunately, you had a second basket you didn't drop. Good thing you knew not to put all your eggs in one basket, right?

Lesson: You shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket.

Your mother scolded you pretty good. And scolded you again after you beat your little brother with your dolly.

And, since there was no form injected plastic yet, your dolly was made of solid wood.

Your brother probably won't leave his toy soldiers in the field again. At least not for a few days, until he forgets again.

Anyway, you still don't trust your brother to not leave his toys around where you won't trip on them, so, the next day, you realize that, if it's a bad idea to put all your eggs in one basket and if two baskets are good, then more must be better!

You get eight baskets. You can carry three in each hand, one in your mouth and the other jammed in between the others somewhere.

You spend the next morning collecting all the eggs from the chickens and fill all eight baskets.

Of course, you know to go directly to the house this time, and not get sidetracked in the field. Your brother may still be bruised, but that doesn't mean he hasn't left his toys about. So, why take chances, right?

After all, that's why you put all your eggs in eight baskets instead of just one, or two.

If one is bad and two is good then more must be better!

On your way back to the house, one basket slips out of your hand, you try to catch it, but that results in dropping two more baskets. Those bump into other baskets and, well, you've dropped all your baskets and you've shattered a whole bunch of eggs.

Your mother is going to be extremely cross with you.

It might be time to think about running away from home. You could run off to the circus and learn juggling. That would have been a useful skill about thirty seconds ago.

Lesson: You shouldn't put your eggs in too many baskets!

That's an under-learned lesson. People constantly advise you not to put all your eggs in one basket. I offered that advice this morning too.

But, there is such a thing as having your eggs in too many baskets.

For example, around these parts--and I mean the Warrior Forum, not your 1890 farm--it's often recommended to have more than one website. The more, the better! If one doesn't make money, maybe another will!

And so on.

Now, sometimes, it can be very good to have multiple baskets. For example, consider payment processing. It can be a good thing to be able to accept credit cards, PayPal, Google Wallet and so on. A wide variety of payment options can make it easier for your customers.

But, sometimes, it can be bad to have multiple baskets. Let's say you have ten websites. It's not easy to keep ten websites updated, especially if you're trying to do it on a daily basis. Some will suffer. Maybe all of them will. Maybe you'll keep them all updated for a while, but then you'll probably get burned out.

It could take months just to build a site up to the point where it's making a decent income. If you're juggling too many sites and spreading your focus around, it could take longer. In the meantime, you could just get fed up with doing it, especially if you're spending hour after hour every day doing something and only seeing a few pennies in your AdSense account.

You're like the little girl trying to hold eight baskets. Instead of mitigating the risk by distributing the egg load across multiple baskets, you've increased the risk by trying to balance more egg baskets than is reasonable. The end result is that, instead of losing just one basket of eggs, you could lose them all.

Which sort of undermines the whole idea of spreading the eggs across multiple baskets, doesn't it?

Of course, one could outsource the management of multiple websites, but that's not always feasible, especially for someone just starting out.

Lesson: Don't try to balance more baskets than you can carry.

Instead of trying to build dozens of websites at the start, build one, maybe two. Focus on that site. Build it up. Get it making money, then look into starting more. Don't start more than you can handle or afford to outsource the handling of.

Also, be nicer to your little brother. Beating him with your wooden dolly was kind of mean.

The bottom line: Putting your eggs in too many baskets can be as detrimental as putting them all in one basket.