“That’ll work against lower belts. But it won’t help you against upper belts.”

Just when I think I’m starting to figure out BJJ, an instructor will helpfully burst my bubble with a line like that.

They aren’t saying that what I’m doing doesn’t work. They are saying it won’t keep working for me as I progress. It’s frustrating. Especially if it is a move that they taught me.

But they aren’t wrong.

It’s important to know the basics. And it feels good to advance. But it’s valuable to be reminded that as I get better, so do my training partners and competition. The expectations are higher. The challenges are higher. The ‘kid gloves’ come off, so to speak.

The Same Thing Happens in Business

I saw this recently with a company selling kid-safe phone watches. Many parents wanted exactly what they offered: a way to reach their kids without handing them the whole internet. We bought their watches. Their product took off. The company got attention, good reviews, and a ton of demand.

Then they couldn’t keep up. Customer service tanked. They weren’t ready for the growth they wanted. If they don’t fix that quickly, not only will they lose their growth, they may begin to lose market and never recover.

Success and growth don’t mean, “No more problems.” What they should mean is, “We know how to avoid or manage the easy problems. Now we are ready for the bigger ones.”

Examples of the Challenges of Success

• The product takes off, and customer service collapses.
• The company doubles in size and needs a management layer the current team cannot fill.
• Bigger customers are interested, bringing higher expectations, higher stakes, and less tolerance for informality.

And so on.

You might be proud of your growth. (And why not? You should be.) But you may also be underbuilt for what you are now asking the company to carry.

The Growth Paradox

It’s very common to work with companies who have experienced this. A year or three of dramatic growth, 50%, 100%, 200% or more. Then a sudden drop in revenue back down to the previous “norm” or even lower.

That often feels embarrassing, and no one wants to talk about it. Especially if you were feeling pretty good about yourself and starting to attract attention on the way up. As a result, few other companies know it is going on. Which is fine. They don’t need to.

But in terms of business ‘mythology,’ it’s hard to appreciate how common this experience actually is.

It’s so common, in fact, that it has developed a handful of names: overtrading, growth to bankruptcy, growth stall, small business gigantism, the growth paradox.

I like the Growth Paradox the best. Because it feels like a paradox. Growth was supposed to be the answer to a set of problems, and it just seemed to tee up a new set.

Master the Basics and Mature

Here’s the good news.

When I started BJJ, no one talked to me about what would work on experienced grapplers. They were talking to me about basic fundamentals, timing, and how to manage my own pace and intensity.

Basic self-management.

So when an instructor says, “That won’t work at the next level,” it means they see me as approaching the next level. They are preparing me for a game that is about to change.

I’m pro-growth for almost all my clients. There are exceptions, of course. Companies that refuse to grow for too long often get stuck or fade away.

Plus, it is more fun to work with clients who are making things happen.

But the big caveat: if you grow, the game will change. You have to be ready to level up your game.

The leadership and company that got you to this point- the mindsets, relational dynamics, structure, and culture- all need to grow as well. They rarely have to change in the kind of way that changes the fundamental character of the company. But they do have to mature.

If you want to grow, you also have to grow up.

A client is anticipating growth from $50M to $80M over the next 18 months. They’ve been preparing for this but have gotten distracted. I asked the CEO, “Where will the stress of an $80M year most be felt?”

His answer was the team’s consistency in following processes.

That is where they need to grow up.

If he leads that growth now, an $80M year will still probably be stressful. But in a good workout kind of way. Not in an “I hate life” kind of way.

What about you?

If you realized the growth you dream of next year, where will you most feel the stress of that?

What kind of growth is needed to prepare for it?

Take good care,

Christian