Startup Diary: Momentum Before Scale
I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the difference between momentum and scale, in business and beyond.
For the past year, I have had my sights on scale–on building a business that can both handle rapid (or exponential, or geometric) growth and effect significant change in the world.
But I am beginning to appreciate the importance of momentum as a precursor to scale.
Here’s what I mean: many of us who seek to make a difference want it all to happen now–the book that launches an international platform, the organization that affects millions, the movement that transforms the world.
But that’s not actually where we are. And so we take actions based on that false sense of reality–namely, that we’re at a point where building economies of scale makes sense.
If we actually decided to look at where we were, however–to be brutally honest about our present situation–we would see that simply building momentum, over and over again is the most effective and sensible strategy we can adopt.
What does that look like? To me, it looks something like this: everyday, I develop more momentum than the previous one… and when I’ve developed enough momentum where more complex systems are needed, then I shift my focus to scale (thanks to Rich Schefren for the insight).
So if you’re in startup phase–like I am–then I recommend starting to take an honest look at how much momentum you’re actually building. It may surprise you, as it did me.
I’m now in the momentum business–not the scale business. That comes later.
