The fastest way to grow your business isn't to add. It's to subtract.

That's the argument Eric Partaker makes in this episode, and it's one I needed to hear as much as anyone. (I should probably take his advice myself.)

Eric coaches CEOs for a living. Six hundred of them and counting, after a career that took in McKinsey, the early days of Skype, and a chain of Mexican restaurants. So he's watched a lot of people try to grow. And the ones who do it badly nearly always make the same mistake: they reach for more. More products, more channels, more initiatives. It feels like progress. It's actually just complexity, and complexity is what kills scale.

The ones who pull off something genuinely big do the opposite. They cut. They decide what they're not going to do, and then they don't do it. Most founders don't have a growth problem at all. They have a focus problem.

We get into 10x goals, why a "realistic" target quietly caps you, and the strange freedom of setting a goal you've got no idea how to hit.

If this is your kind of thing, I write more of it every week at https://alexmhsmith.substack.com/

The Rare Mind is a new podcast from strategist and No Bullsh*t Strategy author Alex M H Smith. In an era when any old idiot can access best practice tactics from AI, it's going to be the ways you think unpredictably that actually count.

Each episode, Alex sits down with the business leaders who've been there and done it - to unpack their unique strategic lessons in a way that makes them relevant and applicable for everyone.

If you're a business leader who wants to turn the way you think into your ultimate weapon, subscribe now. First episode coming soon.

For more from Alex, subscribe to The Rare Mind newsletter: https://alexmhsmith.substack.com/