Most of us, when we want to grow, ask the same question. How can I do more?
More hours. More clients. More tasks checked off. More hustle.
I've asked it a hundred times. And I've learned it's usually the wrong question. Because if you're not careful, doing more just gives you more of whatever you already have - including the stuff that isn't working.
Growth amplifies what already exists
Here's the idea that hit me hardest while working through Benjamin Hardy's book The Science of Scaling. I've read it three times and I'm going through it again. Before you try to get bigger, you'd better get better.
Because growth is an amplifier.
More customers can amplify poor service. More employees can amplify weak leadership. More revenue can amplify broken systems.
The same thing is true for you personally. More responsibility amplifies your habits. If your habits are good, great. If they're not, a promotion just puts a bigger spotlight on them.
And please hear me - this isn't only for business owners or salespeople. It applies to the teacher, the coach, the banker, the HR person, the janitor, the parent. You can swap "bigger" for whatever fits your world. A high school football coach isn't trying to get a bigger team. He's trying to build a better program - more impact, better reps, more consistency. Bigger doesn't have to mean revenue. It can mean impact.
What does your next level look like?
Before you can get better, you need to know what you're aiming at. Not someone else's definition of success. Yours.
What does the next level look like in your role, your career, your leadership? What does it look like for your team?
Keep it tight. One personal goal and one professional goal is plenty. If you have more than three priorities, you don't have any priorities.
And set a target big enough that you have to change to hit it. If I want to be an average teacher, I can keep doing what I'm doing. If I want to be the best teacher in my state, a lot of things have to change. Let the goal expose you.
Ask a better question
So instead of "How can I do more?" ask this:
What would have to change?
That question moves you toward a simple framework: decisions, then standards, then systems, and only then scale. Most people want to jump straight to scale. They skip the parts that make growth hold up.
Some questions I'm asking myself right now in my own business:
- What must I learn?
- What must I rethink?
- What must I change in my systems and habits?
- What am I avoiding?
That last one stings. For me, I don't love sales. I'd rather educate and empower people than convince anybody of anything. But avoiding it doesn't make it go away. At some point I need to ask the people closest to me - my wife, my team, my coach - to look honestly at my routine and tell me what I'm not doing. And then I need to listen.
Busy is not productive
Here's another hard one. Busy does not mean productive. Activity does not mean achievement.
High performance is doing more of what matters - not more of everything. Brendon Burchard, author of High Performance Habits, puts it simply: find the one or two things that really move the needle in your role, and do them every day.
So take a look at your week and ask:
- What should I stop doing?
- What could be simplified?
- What could be systematized?
- What needs to be delegated?
- What truly requires me?
I'm not letting any of us off the hook here. I think we need to work harder and do hard things. But harder and smarter. More hours alone rarely adds more value.
Growth asks for courage
I've found that growth rarely asks for more competence first. It asks for courage.
Courage to quit something. Change something. Learn something. Delegate something. Confront something. Risk something.
You probably won't need all six right now. But one of them is probably already hitting you upside the head. You know which one.
And take ownership of your part. On a football staff, after a loss, the head coach takes responsibility - but so do the assistants, and so do the players. It's not 50/50. It's 100/100. Wherever you sit in the system, you're part of it. That's good news, because it means you can make it better.
Capacity before opportunity
If an opportunity landed in your lap tomorrow, would you be ready?
My son started as an unpaid graduate assistant on a college football staff. His first couple of weeks, he was cleaning offices. He kept learning, kept adding value, and within the year he was handling real responsibility on game days. He was ready when the opportunity came, because he'd been building capacity before anyone asked him to.
That's the whole point. Past success deserves gratitude, but we can reflect without residing there. Keep growing your skills and your value to the people you serve, and you'll raise the quality of whatever you do - whether or not you ever want a bigger title.
Your One More Rep: one question, one lever
Here's your One More Rep this week.
Write down your next level in one sentence. Then answer one question: What would have to change?
Pick the one lever - one skill, one standard, one system - that would make the biggest difference. Maybe it's 15 minutes a day reaching out to people instead of waiting for them to come to you. Maybe, if you're a teacher, it's connecting with one different student every day until you've connected with them all.
Don't scale the chaos. Get better before you get bigger.
You'll make your team better, the people you serve better, and the world a little better too. Let's go!
