In economics, there's the time value of money formula that factors in the potential earning capacity of the current value of your money. (See formula above)
What is the formula for the value of time
if factor in the opportunity cost? In particular, if you have two projects both seem promising, should you be pursuing both or should focus on one before starting the other?
The consensus seems to point towards laser sharp focus
--don't spread too thin. Then there are outliers like Elon Musk, heading Tesla, SpaceX and other projects in parallel. When the entrepreneur has the funding to pursue multiple (great) opportunities, they operate kinda like VCs, and you need to have leaders in each project to execute on the vision full time.
The tri-factors are: Cost, Quality, and Time. By laser-sharp focus, you deploy all you got into one project. By doubling the cost--assuming that you are well funded--you may be able to pursue both opportunities at the same time, but you are also doubling the risk to your capital.
Consider the fact that largest corporations in the world, many tried to expand into new product categories, but only a small percentage of them succeeded in growing beyond their core competency. To sustain and fend off competitors is already a tough problem to tackle. It is challenging to grow both horizontally and vertically.
I do not have an answer. Personally, to maximize the reward for my time, I'd focus on a single goal that would be rewarding enough to sustain the company. To achieve that goal, it would require many disciplines and coordinated executions on many fronts. From product design, product development, to hiring and sales & marketing, etc.--everything you know from the "business canvas" and more.
For example, if you are running Tesla, you need to solve the technology challenge on extending the range of the battery powered vehicle, as well as managing the design and manufacturing of the robots that build the vehicles, as well as the quality control and how to deal with hiring and managing workers trying to unionize and apply for fundings from Government support and investor relationships, etc and etc.
Well, the projects I'm managing aren't as complicated--my primarily focus is on delivering product(s). But the knowledge in other segments are necessary for execution. There needs to have a "breath" person to link all the components together. And there needs to have one or more "depth" persons to execute on each discipline.
While it is tempting to chase after all the trendy products, I will resist and focus on delivering what we set out to build.