This always confuses me.
Yet I hear it all the time.
“Oh, I wouldn’t want to get much bigger.”
“I don’t want to grow much more.”
“We’re fine as we are.”
Whenever someone says it, I always pause—because it’s confusing.
These are business owners who work incredibly hard. They’ve taken risks, invested years of their life, and put everything on the line to build something. And yet… the moment the conversation turns to growth, something in them pulls back.
So the question is: why wouldn’t you want to grow?
And the honest answer is this: is it because you’re afraid of something?
Not weak. Not lazy. Afraid.
Most people who shy away from growth aren’t avoiding the work. They’re avoiding an imagined pain—a story they’ve told themselves about what growth will mean. Growth, in their mind, equals more stress, more hours, more complexity, more pressure. They picture a bigger business as a heavier weight on their shoulders.
But here’s the truth that flips the whole thing upside down:
Growth done properly does not mean you work harder. It means you work less.
Because the purpose of growth isn’t to add more to your plate—it’s to take things off.
What They’re Really Afraid Of
When someone says they don’t want to grow, what they really mean is:
- “I don’t want more problems.”
- “I don’t want more responsibility.”
- “I don’t want more people to manage.”
- “I don’t want it to get out of control.”
- “I don’t want the business to become bigger than I can handle.”
These are all emotional fears rooted in one belief:
“If the business grows, I will have to work harder.”
And that belief is simply wrong, if you own shares in a bank you don’t have to work in the bank.
Growth Is About Building a Better Machine
Most owner-managed businesses hit a plateau not because of lack of opportunity, but because the owner becomes the bottleneck. Everything flows through them and they refuse to let it go. They are the system.
So of course, growth feels overwhelming—they’re imagining scaling themselves, not scaling the business.
But real growth is about designing a machine that runs without you being involved in every decision, every problem, every job. And that comes from one key shift:
Employing people who are better than you at the things you shouldn’t be doing.
Not hiring “helpers.”
Not hiring “pairs of hands.”
Hiring capability.
Hiring people who raise the standard, lift the load, and make the business stronger without you having to carry any extra weight this is the true genius of Entrepreneurship, hire people better than you are at running a business, and yes there are many of them out there.
Avoiding a Pain That Doesn’t Exist
The irony is this:
Almost every business owner who avoids growth is trying to avoid future pain…
…but the pain they’re imagining doesn’t exist when you grow correctly.
And in avoiding that imagined pain, they trap themselves in a very real one:
- working harder than they should
- carrying all the pressure
- feeling stuck
- never reaching their true potential
- owning a job rather than owning a business
So… Why Wouldn’t You Want to Grow?
If growth means:
- doing less
- earning more
- building a stronger team
- reducing stress
- and creating freedom
…then the real question becomes:
Why wouldn’t you want that?
It’s not growth people fear.
It’s a story.
Change the story—and growth becomes the path to the life and business they actually wanted when they started.
By Andy Walter
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