We’re obsessed with the idea of “growth”.

I remember in my early days of entrepreneurship in 2012 romanticizing the idea of startups.

Until the day I visited a local bootstrapped founder’s office and saw the raw reality of growing a company.

Growth in nature is finite:

it grows to its fixed capacity and as much as it can with that capacity.

i.e. the banana tree in my backyard will reach its limit at 9ft in growth and then produce as many offshoots as it can (currently, we’re at about 5)

Yet, we humans can conceptualize the infinite.

Which leaves us with the responsibility of choosing our own path.

“We all want to be billionaires, right?” a founder told me across his office.

“No,” I firmly responded.

What if “growth” isn’t more of the same stuff?

What if growth meant:
• the same revenue but higher profit
• the same team size but higher quality clients
• the same business but getting better and longer sleep at night
• your same business but running without you so you can join a local board or create a nonprofit.

This isn’t to lower your ambition but to challenge it:

WHY do you want to grow?

Growth for it’s own sake is vanity.

Because here’s the thing:

most all your goals will be accomplished.

It’s just a matter of time and perseverance.

The question is:

when you get there, will you actually be who you want to be and will you be where you want to be?