♖ 45 years. Zero goals. Still winning.

Hi Friends,

I've spent my career obsessed about growth.

Investment banking. Tech startups. Series A company to exit. I've absorbed every framework, every hack, every "grow or die" panic.

Then there's my dad.

Mohib runs what every MBA would call an "unambitious" business, and it's outlasted nearly every unicorn I've observed.

What's in this issue:

• Why two-thirds of fast-growing companies fail (and what they miss)

• Three distinct scaling strategies (most founders don't know they have a choice)

• The hidden costs of growth-at-all-costs that kill profitable companies

Why this matters: You may be optimizing for the wrong type of growth. Understanding these three paths could save you from scaling yourself into endless drudgery.

My Dad's "Terrible" Business Strategy

Millennium Tours just hit 45 years. It's a travel business specializing in group trips for universities and corporations. Dad still works 50+ hours per week and loves it. Here's how he runs it:

• Zero written goals (seriously, none)

• Caps team at 6 people (actively turns down expansion)

• Cherry-picks clients (will actively turn down new business)

• Plans negative growth years (on purpose)

• Won't diversify clients (so many eye rolls)

He’s a McKinsey consultant’s worst nightmare.

Yet this "unambitious" approach built a sustainable eight-figure business that survived 9/11, COVID, multiple wars, and countless industry shakeups that killed his "ambitious" competitors.

Here's what I learned watching him: Most growth advice is actually terrible advice in disguise.

The Growth Trap Nobody Talks About

We celebrate companies hitting 50%+ growth. We ignore the graveyard of companies that killed themselves chasing those numbers.

The data: According to The Kauffman Foundation and Inc. Magazine, two-thirds of the fastest-growing companies ultimately fail. Not because they couldn't grow, because they couldn't sustain it.

I've lived this. Board and management meetings felt like the movie Speed, go below a certain growth rate and everything explodes. This clip lives rent free in my head.

Meanwhile, Dad quietly compounds. His "boring" approach survived 9/11, COVID, multiple wars, and countless industry shakeups that killed competitors.

3 Ways Companies Actually Scale

Over my career and watching Dad, I've noticed three distinct growth approaches:

1. Scale Big (The Ramp/Lovable Model)

Massive markets, venture-backed, land-grab mentality. Spectacular when it works. Expensive when it doesn't.

2. Scale Smart (The Basecamp Model)

Profitable growth, systems-driven, steady reinvestment. I see this daily at Pricing I/O,where Marcos (CEO) focuses more on client wow, not investor theater.

3. Scale Deep (My Dad Model)

Overdeliver for few clients, premium relationships, intentional limits. Counterintuitive but powerful.

The problem? We act like scaling big is the only "real" strategy.

But how many companies that scaled smart or deep actually outlast the scale-big failures?

The Hidden Costs Nobody Mentions

Dad's approach revealed what most growth advice ignores, the invisible tax of "more":

• More employees = More meetings & politics, less speed

• More funding = More masters, less freedom (This isn’t talked about enough)

• More features = More complexity, less focus

• More markets = More distraction, less excellence

As Paul Jarvis nails it: "Sometimes 'enough' or even less is all we need, since 'more' too often equates to more stress, more problems, and more responsibilities."

When you resist the "more" addiction, magic happens:

You get to be selective. You can fire nightmare clients. You can say no to shiny opportunities. You can optimize for what actually matters, not what looks good on social media.

Final Thought

This isn't about anti-growth. It's about anti-stupid-growth.

My dad never built a unicorn. He built something better: a business that serves his life instead of consuming it. Forty-five years later, while his "ambitious" competitors are gone, he's still standing with no collateral damage to account for.

And it still blows my mind he just asked me how to use Excel the other day.

Question for you: Which growth path actually fits your business right now?

'Til next time,

—Ali

P.S. Dealing with pressure to scale faster than makes sense? Hit reply. I read every response and often use them to spark future issues. Your challenge might become the next one that helps hundreds of leaders.

About Me: I'm Ali, Head of Growth at Pricing I/O. I write about building winning strategies without losing your soul. Based in Houston, father of two, and grateful I have a Dad that is way cooler than me.