Headspace Blog

Riding a bike is a lot like running a business. You learn to do it gradually, it's fun, there's freedom, but as you become more advanced you also become more fixated on advancing.

Never truer was this analogy then it is today, where a countless number of apps and measuring devices are available to access your personal metrics on the bike and in your business.

It seemed like the more I got into cycling, the more I got into reading the numbers until at a point I found myself staring at the tiny screen on the handlebars instead of the open road ahead of me. I would be asking myself constantly, what's my heart rate, or what kind of power am I putting out? Instead of realizing how beautiful the ocean over my shoulder was or feeling the wind on my face, I was in a perpetual race with myself. 

There is so much focus on exit strategies these days that I think some of us may have forgotten the true purpose of being an entrepreneur, an investor, or an economic developer: to build businesses. 

Yet, how can we do that in a meaningful way when there is so much pressure on new entrepreneurs to hurry up and exit – to make money and get out? This approach does not support long-term value for any of the players. I believe a valuable exit strategy enables the continued growth of the company – not so much an end game as a passing of the puck.

Are we suffering from short-termism?

I think entrepreneurs today are a lot like the pioneers of years ago. We have dreams of sunnier skies in a better world. We are driven to forge a new path in the pursuit of freedom. We crave the independence to do something meaningful. And to succeed, we can also draw on some of the same skills that enabled pioneers to survive and thrive.

To entrepreneurs, a new opportunity is like uncharted territory to our forebears. To get there, a strong work ethic is essential, along with some often overlooked capabilities that pioneers had in abundance. They had a clear vision of a bigger and better future at the end of the road. They drew people together by communicating a compelling story of the riches to come. They knew how to maximize resources, under many constraints, to build something that lasted. And they used their strong social skills to foster a community.

Beyond pitching, chasing capital, and product tinkering, entrepreneurs who want to succeed today also need to communicate their vision consistently, internally and externally, develop creative ways of working under significant resource constraints, and the social intelligence to connect and build a solid community of followers. In this sense, even hundreds of years later, pioneering hasn’t changed much.

As I look at my numbers it occurs to me that, for most entrpreneurs, managing growth is an oxymoron, and I’m no exception. We talk about the growth we want to see in our business (at least more than 20% in the next year!) but we don’t invest to make it happen – our actions don’t support our intentions. And, inevitably, we’re left dissatisfied with the results.

In my experience, most disappointments around growth are due to unrealistic expectations and unfocused execution. For years, I would set “stretch” goals – well beyond what was reasonable. We would push to get there and, of course, it just wasn’t within our capacity. As my Mum would say, “our eyes were bigger than our stomach.”

After pushing all year to meet the numbers that could never be met, we would feel frustrated with ourselves and question our abilities, rather than our targets.

Why do we sabotage our own growth?