I thought about my post from yesterday a bit more. As an entrepreneur’s company grows, the demands on the entrepreneur grow. The brute-force style of work that was helpful when they were doing lots of execution doesn’t work as well as the business grows in complexity, the team grows, and, most importantly, the entrepreneur’s role evolves. The brute-force approach to work becomes insufficient, and the entrepreneur’s productivity declines as the scope and volume of their responsibilities grow.

I think entrepreneurs feel this more than others, given the nature of their work, but it happens to people working for a company they don’t own or lead too. The trigger isn’t the title, it’s the accelerated growth in a role’s complexity, number of reports, and scope and depth of responsibilities. Said differently, the more things and people you’re responsible for and the faster both increase, the faster you’re likely to fall short of expectations of your role if you’re using a brute-force work style. The faster a company grows and/or the faster you climb the ladder, the faster a brute-force work style will fail you.