The Uncomfortable Truth About Growth
Why Breaking Things Is Part of Building Things
When everything in your business feels smooth and chill, most leaders think that’s a good sign.
It means the systems are working.
The team knows what to do.
Everything is running without friction.
Newsflash: That’s not a good sign.
That’s actually the beginning of the end.
Not because smooth operations are bad, but because growth and smooth operations don’t go together. We’ve been taught to think friction is bad, so we try to remove it. But if nothing feels broken, you’re not actually growing.
Growth requires breaking things.
You have to break old systems.
You have to break comfortable working relationships.
You have to break routines that felt safe.
And just because you’re better at your job now doesn’t mean the things that worked before will work for what comes next.
Why Breaking Things Is Part of Building Things
Growth is like being in a gym.
You have to learn new movements that feel awkward at first. You have to use muscles you forgot you had. You have to rebuild strength in parts of your body that haven’t worked hard in a while.
It’s uncomfortable.
It reminds you of how much it hurt the first time. And even though you think you’re stronger now, the process of getting even stronger still hurts.
Here’s how it works in a business:
When you grow, you need new systems. That means building new infrastructure, which feels slow and frustrating. It means building new technology, which everyone thinks can happen overnight but actually takes months to build something useful.
Plus, new systems require new relationships.
You have to work with people you don’t know yet. Sometimes you don’t even know who those people are. Sometimes you’re too polite and you don’t want to bother them, so you try to figure it out alone when you should just ask.
Also, new relationships require uncomfortable reaching out.
You have to build trust from scratch. You have to explain the full story again. You have to figure out who does what, who owns what, and who to talk to when something breaks.
Let’s not forget that different seasons mean different priorities.
When you’re growing fast, one team might be critical. When you’re stabilizing, a different team becomes the focus. What felt urgent last quarter might not matter this quarter. That means you have to reset expectations over and over.
That takes a lot of emotional strength.
My Top 3 Recommendations During Messy Growth Times
To have a breakthrough, break something. You can’t optimize your way into a new capability. You have to build it, and building it will mess up things that already work. That’s normal. That’s what growth is all about.
Invest in relationships. When things are breaking, the people who trust you will help you rebuild faster than people who barely know you. Collaboration makes hard things easier, but collaboration only works when you’ve already built the relationship.
Over-communicate. When things feel uncertain, when you’re growing fast, or when nobody’s sure what’s happening next, tell everyone what you know. Then tell them again. Then tell them you’re going to keep telling them. If you feel like it’s too much, it’s probably the right amount. People can handle change when they know what’s changing and why.
Growth isn’t supposed to feel smooth. It’s supposed to feel like lifting something heavier than you lifted last time.
To have a breakthrough, you must break something.
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Couldn't agree more.