Quote
“A company of one questions growth first, and then resists it if there's a better, smarter way forward.”
— Paul Jarvis, in Company of One (2019) · Company of One →
Why it was said
Paul Jarvis writes this in the opening pages of Company of One, after about twenty years of running a one-person design business without becoming an agency. It is aimed at the assumption most business books make without stating it: that more is always better.
What it actually means
Growth has costs that do not appear on the spreadsheet: management, payroll, obligation, the loss of the reason you started. Jarvis is not against growing; he is against growing by default. The sentence asks the owner to treat each increase in size as a question with two answers, better or merely bigger, and to be willing to hear the second.
How to use it
- 1Before any hire, location or product line, write what it would cost you that you cannot see yet.
- 2Ask 'better or bigger?' and improve (price, systems, customers) before you expand.