My favorite boss would always say, “growth solves everything”.
I didn’t understand when I first heard him say it years ago. I thought it meant only worrying about growing. Simplified to more money is better than less money.
But over the years the meaning has become clear.
Quick example
The best example that I can not discuss in detail happened while I was running TheraNest.
TheraNest is an electronic health record (EHR) for mental health providers. I was running TheraNest when COVID hit the United States. Businesses closed and people sheltered in place.
Our customers panicked as large cities shut down. Their clients were unable to visit them at their office. Providers searched for a solution to help them serve their patients through the lock-down.
A couple of years before COVID we added a Telehealth option. We saw legislation loosening and more providers interested in seeing patients virtually.
Our Telehealth service was used but it was not adopted by most of our customer base. Until COVID. The mass adoption and usage of our Telehealth platform identified key problems we had not identified. We were focusing our energy on the wrong piece of Telehealth because the “growth” was not there. And once it was the problem was obvious, painfully obvious.
The problem presented itself differently for one of our direct competitors who did not have a Telehealth option. They threw one together as their customer base rapidly shrank.
What “growth solves everything” means
So what does “growth solves everything”. Growth does not solve your problems but it identifies the important problems you must solve.
Before you have Growth, you’re guessing at what the important problems are. Instead of running down rabbit holes attempting to predict the future, growth brings your biggest problems to light.
Growth solves the problem of where you focus resources and energy.
Growth identifies your most important problems. And often you need to solve them with haste.