Jason Cohen: prediction

Transcript context

…The last question is, do you need to grow? So okay, growth is stalled. And if we assume every question before has been answered in a satisfactory way, you could ask, "Hey, is that a problem? What do we mean by grow? What do we need to do exactly?" Now, of course, you should know these kind of things, the goals all the time. And again, obviously the answer could be once again, all new products. These other things where this company, when we say, "Do you need to grow?" if we define you as this product in this market and this company, the answer might be, "No, what we need to do is have a different product in a different market or a different thing," or you could change the word revenue. If you say, "Do you need to grow revenue?" You could change the word revenue and say, "You know what? What we could do is maximize profit instead of revenue now. We've been maximizing revenue, but maybe we maximize profit instead." And so this is a company like 37Signals or really lots of bootstrap companies who have hit some sort of limit and realize, "That's okay. The founders are getting paid millions of dollars a year in dividends and it's okay, but I don't have to get... In fact, if I got bigger, it might be an organization that I don't like or serving a market segment that I don't want to serve," or whatever. And so maybe growing forever isn't the goal actually, or growing revenue isn't. You could ask philosophically, why grow anything? Why isn't it just okay to have stasis? And we all have heard the phrase, "If you're not growing, you're dying." This is a classic company thing. Is that true or is that the kind of thing that investors use to make founders grow or try to grow even when they shouldn't? It might be, but I would submit that even at a bootstrap company that has other values and culture other than growth at all costs, that that phrase is still fairly relevant because if the company... But that phrase is still fairly relevant because if the company's stagnant for years, is that a great environment for everyone? As the founder, did you start this company in order to do the same thing every day? Is that why you did it? Is that fulfilling for you? What about everyone else? Nobody wants to further their career? They just want to do the same thing every day and never further their career, not really learn anything, not really innovate? Does it feel good to just not be growing? The answer could be yes. If I'm a CPA, and I have some clients, and life is good, the answer could be yes. I'm not dictating the answer here. I'm just asking because a lot of times, whether it's our careers, or as founders, our companies, a lot of times we've just been in the mode of, "Oh, I've got to grow, I've got to get promoted, I've got to do more, I've got my resume." We've got in that mode for so long, maybe our whole life, that I was going to say lose sight of, but maybe we never had sight of, "Wait, does this make me happy? Is this what I really want? y resume." We've got in that mode for so long, maybe our whole life, that I was going to say lose sight of, but maybe we never had sight of, "Wait, does this make me happy? Is this what I really want? Am I fulfilled doing this? Or even if I do have these goals, have I gotten stuck in a rut where my goal is growth and I don't know, more money, more everything, but I'm stuck in a rut here." Sometimes we forget to take a step back and go, "Wait a minute. Is this still right or do I need to turn the page and have a new chapter of life right now?" And so this question, do you need to grow, or if you're not growing, you're dying, well, for some people, no, they like doing the same thing forever. And that's great, actually. That's nice. But for many people, especially the kind of people who want to get into product, and build stuff, and innovate, and people who start companies, a lot of people like that are not the kind of people that want to just do rote things for 20 years. And so the not growing part, what I like to say is maybe the you in if you are not growing, you're dying is you, the person as opposed to you, the company. It's also you, the company. But what if we took it to mean you? If you are not growing, then in some sense, maybe for some people, you're dying. Maybe if you're listening to this, that's you. You're a shark and you got to go. And we all know people too, who claim they hate work or maybe they do hate work. Let's not say claim, they do hate work, but then they retire and kind of go downhill because they don't have a purpose or this, or that, and the other thing. In that case, it was true, if they're not growing, they're dying, literally. So again, I don't mean to overstate this, and I certainly don't mean to claim that there's some answer that's right for everybody, of course, but surely this is the right kind of question. And surely for many people who are listening to this, the answer is, "Yeah, I mean, in some sense, some very rough sense, that's probably right for me. And so if I'm in a stagnant situation and really, every other option has been exhausted and isn't going to happen, this is simply a stagnant thing. Maybe there's something else needs to happen. I need to leave, the company needs to change some drastic way, I sell the company, I change jobs." I don't know. Of course, it's going to be super context specific and personal. But something dramatic may need to change because nothing incrementally is changing. So this final question, do you need to grow? Or if you're not growing, you're dying, is that true? And are you therefore dying and what needs to happen? So if you were looking for more metrics in another framework, sorry, it's existential, but it is. It is existential. So do you have to only ask this at the end of the chain? No, of course you should feel fulfilled. And of course you want to be checking in with yourself at least annually, of course. But I put it at the end of my list in the sense that I'm assuming the original question is about the company, especially with smaller companies, but also with big public companies. There's plenty of big public companies that aren't growing, aren't there? 'm assuming the original question is about the company, especially with smaller companies, but also with big public companies. There's plenty of big public companies that aren't growing, aren't there? So this is true of all scales because there are natural sizes for things. So yeah, it's a little philosophical, but I think it's quite important.…

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