Dear reader,
Once upon a time, many, many years ago, while I was scrolling through Instagram, I came across a reel that went along the lines of:
How big would you dream if you knew you wouldn’t fail, if you knew you couldn't fail?
I have thought of that line, that quote, more than a couple of times.
In the short time I’ve been alive and have worked, I’ve realized that if you work diligently, the effort that is needed to do work on something big and something small is very similar.
For example: if you owned a small cafe, the effort that would be needed to run that cafe properly would be very comparable to if you were trying to run a multi-location cafe network. I agree that it definitely seems easier to run just one location because you can give it your best. However, when you go from running one location to multiple, you also begin to think of “how” you can run multiple locations properly.
The way you think changes with the responsibility you take on. If we were to continue with the cafe analogy, you would begin to figure out how you can make each of your locations independent. Not in the sense of making them individually sustainable, but in the sense of those locations being independent of you. So that you are no longer a part of the machine.
You’d build systems and perhaps hire people and create a structure that would allow other people to do the “running the machine.” You could instead be able to focus on how to make the processes more streamlined; you could focus on better, bigger problems. More visionary problems.
But in doing so, there’s another line too that I think of often:
Make something, and then make it beautiful.
From what I’ve learned, there’s a good and a bad time to try to expand.
Let’s actually keep it in the theme of the cafe.
When you’ve just started one location and are still trying to figure out how to make that first location profitable and sustainable, if you try to expand, you’ll almost certainly fail.
On the other hand, if you were able to establish one location among the locals with stable profit and returning customers, then beginning to work on a possible next location would be a good idea.
If one location and the returns from that are all you need, go ahead, stick with that. But if you like taking on challenges or are someone who considers the possibility “if you knew you wouldn’t fail” and that’s something that appeals to you, perhaps consider not staying limited. Perhaps continue to think of how you could do better or bigger than you are doing right now.
You, of course, don’t have to. But you can.
Either way, what’s the worst that can happen?
I’ll see you next week.
Warmly,
Suraj