Essentialism The CEO of a Silicon Valley-based leadership and strategy firm, Greg McKeown, who has taught at Apple, Google, and Facebook, demonstrates for you how to accomplish what he terms the disciplined pursuit of less. Having a disciplined thought process is crucial to being an essentialist. To pursue "the right thing, in the right way, at the right time" in place of the fundamental beliefs that "We can have it all" and "I have to do everything," is what it means to challenge these beliefs.