Growth is not optional. And it’s not about getting more. It’s about becoming more.
Yes, I know. The word “growth” makes a lot of people sweat or feel ashamed. But it shouldn’t be that way. Maybe after reading this, you’ll think about growth from a completely new perspective. We’ll see.
When some people hear “growth,” they think of greed. Always wanting more. More money, more stuff, more followers, and never feeling it’s enough. Other people think of a title, a raise, a bigger office, or a nicer car. Something you can point at from the outside.
I understand both. For a long time, I measured growth the outside way, too.
When I started my company in 2009, for the first few years I worked crazy hours. I wanted to grow my company at all costs, and I did. The cost I paid was my health. I was overweight, almost depressed, and I’d walk around like a zombie. Sometimes I couldn’t sleep. Other times I couldn’t get out of bed. I started to hate my work and my life.
So I did what felt like the only option left: I ran away. I flew to the foothills of the Himalayas and walked into a 10-day Vipassana retreat. Ten days of complete silence. No talking, no phone. Just me and my breath.
For a while after that, I wondered if growth itself was the problem. Maybe wanting to grow was what broke me. Maybe I should just stay small and safe.
Fast forward to 2019. After years of reflection and reading, I realized it wasn’t my desire to grow that was the problem. It was how I defined growth, and the path I took to get there.
So what is growth, really?
To me, growth simply means becoming a better version of yourself.
That’s it. Not a richer version. Not a more famous version. A better one.
It means finding small chances in everyday life to make things a little better. Like being the person others can count on. Instead of chasing crazy big goals, it’s about focusing on simple daily actions, like using a 10-minute pocket of time well or getting 1% better every day. A walk instead of another hour of scrolling. (I’m still working on that last one.)
Do enough of those small things, and over time you become a good, happy, healthy person. In my opinion, that’s the only kind of growth that really matters, and the only kind that lasts.
Growth isn’t a shiny new object, a far-off north star, or rocket science.
Look around, and you’ll see it everywhere, in everything.
A seed doesn’t ask if it should grow. It just grows toward the light. A child doesn’t decide to learn to walk because walking looks good on a resume. She falls, gets up, and tries again. A tree keeps adding a new ring every year, whether anyone is watching or not.
It’s part of nature. And it’s part of being human.
When we stop growing, we don’t really stay still. Something inside us starts to feel stuck, restless, or a little empty. I think you know that feeling. I know I do.
What does “grow or die” really mean?
A while ago, I read an essay called “Chief Growth Officer” by Blair Enns, the founder of Win Without Pitching. It’s written for business owners, but it changed how I think about growth in life, too.
Blair writes that for about 30 years, growth beyond a certain point just seemed unnecessary to him. “Greedy, even,” as he puts it. Then he changed his mind. He came to see growth as something that is in all of us. People, animals, businesses, and economies all try to become better. In his words, “It is in our nature.”
Blair has a section in his essay called “Grow or Die.” He writes, “Your business must grow, or it will die.” He says, “This isn’t a philosophical point and it’s not rooted in a belief.”
In a world where every life and business is constantly striving, he writes, “the ones that do not evolve get outcompeted and go extinct.” He means that if you stop growing, you don’t get to pause your life and keep everything as it is. The world keeps moving, and it begins to pass you by.
This grow-or-die advice feels very timely, with how AI is changing the way we work, think, and live. Almost every day, I hear a story about a business that closed or is struggling because it didn’t think growing (or adapting its business model) was necessary. I also hear from people in my network who still think learning AI, and using it to improve their skills and craft, is optional. It makes my heart ache, because I know one day they may regret putting it aside.
I used to wonder if I should just stay small and safe. Now I hear the title differently. Grow or die isn’t a push to hustle until you break. It’s a reminder to keep becoming a little better.
Here are a few big lessons from that essay:
1. Growth is trying new things and keeping what works.
Blair explains that growth happens through two simple actions. He calls them conjecture and criticism. In plain words: you try new ideas, then you test them honestly. You keep the ones that work, and you let go of the rest.
It’s a bit like cooking a new recipe. You try it, you taste it, you adjust it. The next time, it’s a little better.
Nature works this way, too. A plant sends its roots out in many directions. The ones that find water get stronger. The others dry up.
2. Growth doesn’t have to mean using up more.
Blair saw that most value comes from knowledge, not raw materials. He shares an example from Joe Pine, author of The Experience Economy. A birthday cake can start as about 20 cents of ingredients. Then it becomes a $2 cake mix, a $20 bakery cake, and a $200 birthday party. The flour and sugar barely change. What grows is the care, the skill, and the experience.
I love this. It means the best growth isn’t about doing more or adding more. It’s about creating more value.
3. Don’t confuse the scoreboard with the game.
Blair warns that it’s easy to mistake the measures of growth for growth itself. Revenue, profit, and titles can be good signs. But they’re not the real thing. He points to economist John Kay, who argues in his book Obliquity that things like wealth and happiness tend to slip away when we chase them directly.
This one hit me hard. In the first 10 years of my business, growth for me meant more revenue, a bigger team, a bigger office, awards, and so on. Then I started to focus on the work itself, like hiring the right person or finding the right client, rather than just adding more to my growth plan. I started asking what wasn’t working, and what was causing the most stress.
Then in 2019, I completely changed the trajectory of my business. A smaller team. A smaller client base (but instead of small and medium businesses, we focused on enterprises). Instead of a grocery store with hundreds of different services, we positioned Multidots as a small cafe that focuses on only a few things and does them really well. We became specialized, and our work grew the way that birthday cake did, from a $2 cake mix to a $200 birthday party.
And through all of this, I worked fewer hours. I had time to read, time to exercise, time to take a nap during the day, do yoga, go on meditation retreats, and travel around the world. Between 2019 and 2026, my company grew 5x more than in its first 10 years.
4. Problems are proof that you’re still growing.
This is my favorite part. Blair writes:
“The prize for solving any problem is a ticket to the next problem.”
He means that problems never really end. You fix one thing, and that opens the door to the next thing you didn’t even know was there. Get the promotion, and now you have to lead people. Have a baby, and suddenly time is your biggest puzzle. (Ask me how I know.)
Blair calls problems “the frontier of your growth.” A life with no problems isn’t peaceful. It’s a life that has stopped moving.
I wrote about this in How’s Your Stress Lucky? We often complain about things in our lives. The AC stops working. The car breaks down. Leading a team feels heavy. Running a business wears us out. But most of what we complain about comes from a privilege we earned. We solved a problem in the past, and that solution created a new challenge. Once we solve one problem, we get a ticket to the next one.
5. You grow first. Everything else follows.
Blair ends with a question for business owners: can a business grow when its people are not growing?
I think the same is true for a family, a friendship, or a life. Things around you rarely grow past the person you are. So the best place to start is with yourself.
I learned this the hard way. In my early years, I pushed my company hard while I was falling apart inside. The company got bigger, but I was miserable. Things really began to change only after I changed: how I defined growth, how I worked, and how I took care of myself. My business followed.
So here is a question for you: which part of your life is waiting for you to grow first?
So is growth greedy, or is it hard?
Here is the thing. I don’t think it’s either.
Greed is wanting more for yourself, at any cost. The growth I’m talking about is becoming more of yourself, so you have more to give. More patience for your kids. More energy for your work. More kindness for the people around you.
And growth doesn’t have to be hard. It needs small steps, taken again and again. Just one small step today, and another one tomorrow. It also needs a little creative thinking about how to add more value with what you already have or know.
Maybe you’ve been burned by the hustle kind of growth, like I was.
If so, as your friend, I’d ask you to look at it a little differently, starting today.
I highly recommend reading Blair Enns’s full essay, “Chief Growth Officer.”
👋 Until next time, Anil / CEO and Co-Founder of Multidots, Multicollab, and Dotstore.
May the Peaceful Growth be with you! 🪴
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