117. When I grow up

Dear Gerard

What I meant was that small companies are more focused on exploitation and thus on the short term, while large companies are more focused on the long term. Basically, smaller companies are focused on exploitation and ‘milking’ their existing customers, and they pay out all the profits to shareholders. Larger companies with are focused on exploration, on the other hand, reserve part of their profits to seek out new opportunities and products.In a way, it makes sense that larger companies are more comfortable doing this than their smaller counterparts, seeing how the employees of smaller companies are too entangled with the company’s core business, leaving little time and money for activities with little to no real short-term results.

That’s why you often hear that the biggest hurdle for companies is reaching the 1 million revenue milestone. A mere 4% of start-ups achieve the one million mark, and only 0.4% reach ten million in revenue. I’m of the opinion that most companies stay small partly because they are a mono shop with a product or service that has temporary success, but they fail to plan for the day when that product or service is no longer in demand. Then they say ‘well, it wasn’t my fault, the market conditions changed’.

Gerard, it’s great to hear that you can talk to your daughter about professional growth and development. My eldest is fifteen and she prefers not to speak with me at all. Thankfully, I still have two younger daughters, and they both keep talking my ears off.

In a way, I’m just like your daughter. I know it sounds crazy, but when I look in the mirror in the early morning, I see a young man wondering what he will do when he grows up.

I’m still always curious and still learning from everything that comes my way. That curiosity is what starts a path towards development and success; if you’re no longer curious, quitting is all that’s left.

You just need to find the way to channel that curiosity into a method to reach your goals. Methods exist in abundance. I don’t believe that any of them is necessarily the best, but you should at least pick one to have something to hold on to. But if there’s one thing you can never lose, it’s your curiosity towards your customers, your new clients, your co-workers, the market, your services and products, and towards environmental conditions. As soon as that lack of interest starts to kick in, I’ll stop working.

Regards,

Erik