Our Obsession with Growth
Do we need more or do we need to develop what we have?
Growth is embedded in every goal, business plan, and aspiration. However, growth is thrown around with such little discernment that it’s easy to overlook its deeper meaning. For growth to happen we must be crystal clear on a few items. We should be able to answer the 5 W’s: Who, What, When, Where and Why. :
Who’s required?
What are we growing for and what is the energy requirement?
When do we expect it; how long do we expect the components to take?
Why are we focused on growth?
Where will it take us?
When it comes to growth, time and energy are the most important resources involved. Yet today, the universal expectation is that individuals and companies should grow at breakneck speeds — 30%, year over year, quarter over quarter; right from the start.
The perception is that growth is a linear numbers game. 1 + 1 = 2.
We treat growth as a given constant. Not a process of non-linear fits and starts. Effectively, we’re ignoring the natural laws and principles that govern our universe. Shrugging off the fact that we learn to grow through failure, recalibration, and adaptation to unexpected events; rather than by a series of neverending successes.
In the 21st Century, growth is pitched as if it were a page out of The Secret. It’s treated as a guarantee. A steep, upward-sloping line — because we thought it into existence.
When discussing growth plans, we overlook the fact that growing involves a sequence of phases. There are periods of high growth, slow growth, and sometimes no growth. That’s the truth behind growth throughout history. On the contrary, our culture suggests that companies, accounts, or individuals not growing at 30% are not worthy. Our six-year-olds should be doing 10-year-old math, or they’ll be left behind. Our young athletes should perform at professional levels before the age of eight, or they’ll never be successful.
Have our expectations become unreasonable? Have we missed a step — did we check to see if we are creating the right environments for growth? Do we really understand the foundations of growth?
According to Galileo and the laws of physics, the only way to grow properly is to understand scale. All growth—from humans to plants, mammals, bacteria, and nature—revolves around the ability of the structure to support its volume. To scale means to grow according to a specific ratio, regardless of the object in question. To grow, structure and volume must work together. They must scale. Otherwise, the weight of the system collapses upon itself.
Unbeknownst to us, we’ve watched this play out many times in our pursuit of growth.
The Pressure of Hyper-Growth
For some organizations and individuals, extraordinary growth is possible. Look at Meta, Google, Amazon, Tesla or the top 5% of our population. Look at our professional athletes who grow and develop at exceptional rates. These examples are inspiring, but they represent exceptions, not the rule. They’re the outliers—the few who raise the bar.
Attempting to make extraordinary cases the standard can create unnecessary stress and unrealistic expectations. For most, meeting such high expectations can cause overcompensation —pushing harder, cramming more tutoring, coaching, and sales into shorter periods. This hamster wheel of constant striving can leave little room to reflect, learn, and grow sustainably.
These lofty expectations can cause us to leave our purpose in a hopeless search for something greater.
We often undermine the principles of growth by prioritizing outcomes over processes that sustain them. Fixating on the allure of achieving more while neglecting the time, energy, and resources required to maintain the existing and also gain the new. Our end goal visions are grand, though we may not fully appreciate the effort it will take to build the necessary foundation to get there.
The Underlying Principles of Growth
True growth requires the right environment, processes, and time to flourish. To evaluate growth thoughtfully we should ask a few questions:
Are the surroundings conducive to growth? Do we have the right resources and support?
Are we prioritizing the process, or are we fixated solely on outcomes?
Do we understand why we’re striving for growth, and what we’re aiming to achieve?
These questions shift the focus from arbitrary benchmarks to meaningful progress. For Type A personalities who thrive on achievement, this doesn’t mean stepping away from ambition. Instead, it means channeling that drive into building a robust foundation. When we nurture our environment and refine our strategies, growth can become more intentional and impactful. It can happen more naturally.
Nature provides us with a powerful analogy for growth. Seeds don’t grow into towering trees overnight. They require the right soil, water, sunlight, and care. The lesson is that growth happens gradually—with periods of rapid expansion followed by slower phases of consolidation. For trees, it can take 20 to 30+ years to grow and mature.
Applying this principle to our personal and professional lives, we can embrace the seasons of growth—early growth, slow growth, rapid growth, and even periods of rest.
These stages are all part of the process. For example, an executive may spend years mastering leadership skills before taking on the role of CEO. Similarly, businesses often require years of experimentation before finding their sweet spot for scalability.
Ultimately, growth should not be about checking off boxes or meeting arbitrary metrics. It’s about meaningful progress—whether that’s in building a successful business, achieving personal goals, or fostering relationships. For some, this might mean scaling their company at 30% annually. For others, it might mean sustaining steady, reliable progress that aligns with their values and vision.
Websters Dictionary 1828 definition of growth captures this perfectly:
GROWTH, noun The gradual increase of animal and vegetable bodies; the process of springing from a germ, seed or root, and proceeding to full size, by the addition of matter, through ducts and secretory vessels. In plants, vegetation. We speak of slow growth and rapid growth; of early growth; late growth and full growth.
If we truly seek growth, we should take a step back. Reflect on the purpose of our efforts. Are we fostering the right environments? Are we nurturing the process? Are we giving ourselves permission to pause, recalibrate, and evolve?
For growth to be meaningful, it must align with our purpose and values — or the weight of the system collapses upon itself.
Whether you’re a high-achieving Type A personality or someone focused on steady improvement, the principles remain the same: growth thrives in the right environment, with the right processes, and over the right period of time.
Today, our interpretation of growth feels lost.
Growth is not a definite that comes every single year. As we set goals and seek more, we should remember growth’s original definition and its components — “a gradual increase”, “the process”, “seed… by the addition of” and the difference between growth stages: “slow growth and rapid growth; of early growth; late growth and full growth.”