Growth is awesome. This is true in any business setting, but particularly so in an early-stage environment. For entrepreneurs, growth is a wonder drug that cures most visible ailments, and countless hidden ones. But, like anything, too much growth (too aggressive, overextending operations) can also create problems for our evolving organizations. As a result, we focus a lot on how to manage growth – how to tame the same wild beast that we strive tirelessly to unleash. We obsess about how to prepare our organizations to perform successfully as they grow – in short, how to “scale” a business. Conversations about scale tend to focus on systems, processes, people, and business models…each of which is important. But, in my experience, one thing rises above them all as far as criticality in scaling: mindset.
