I’m back in not-so-sunny Portland after a month in Baja. Right before I left, I wrote this post on environmental change being a catalyst for new growth:
This morning, I woke and sat at the kitchen table, sipping coffee, and feeling grateful for all the shifts in thinking that happened while I was experiencing the desert vistas.
One of those shifts was to re-think my goals. Last fall, I wrote about how the goals we pursue affect our experience and our outcomes, often in ways we don’t understand when we set the goal:
In behavioral psychology, there’s a phenomenon known as “goal contagion,” where others’ goals become our own, simply through our interactions. Your friend gets excited about Tae Bo, and the next thing you know, you’re hooking and jabbing in your living room to an old Billy Blanks VHS tape.
One of the goals that entrepreneurs get infected with is growth. It’s rare to encounter an entrepreneur that isn’t trying to figure out how to grow to “the next level.” Two years ago, when I visited Baja the first time, I decided to anchor my thinking around this challenge because it was so prevalent.
But as I enjoyed my morning coffees this past month, watching sunrises over the Sea of Cortez, I wondered if it’s not actually a good goal to pursue? With the benefit of two years of thinking about it, I wondered if pursuing growth can inhibit growth?
One of my insights has been that markets largely shape what a business can become. Huge oaks don’t grow in Baja, but if you’re a cactus, you’ll do great there. In the pursuit of growth, I’ve often tried to bring a tactic into the market that will force an oak to grow, but it’s like nurturing its seed in a desert. The only thing it does is waste water and time.
If chasing growth is an ineffectual goal, what’s the alternative?
A working theory that I’ve been playing with is figuring out how to build a better business. If you’re in a desert, you get a higher return by being a better cactus.
There are advantages to choosing to build a better business rather than a bigger business, but that’s for another day. However, consider that the different goal alters what objectives you pursue.
In your business, if you wanted to grow bigger what would you try? If you wanted to get better, what would you try instead?