Four-letter words you might want to use a little less often (part 1)

Written by: Brad Pedersen

Welcome to the first edition of the "Life to the Full" newsletter.

Vijay is one of the people that I have teamed up with to explore new ideas and learnings from StartUp Santa, as well as to share from our own lived experiences what it means to live a meaningful and fulfilling life. Vijay is not only one of my favorite people but a great friend and spiritual mentor of mine. He is also the author on today's topic on potentially problematic four letter words.

We come out of the womb with the word “more” ready to burst out of our newborn lungs. Ok, perhaps that’s not entirely true. Usually “mama” or “dada” are the first words we learn. But the word “more” isn’t far behind. As we get older, the word “more”  evolves into “next”. 

The very continent we live on is built on these two ideas. The founders north and south of the border had a dream. A conviction rather, that each person should be able to pursue their own interests, passions, needs and wants, unhindered by King, border, or family background. Adam Smith’s belief that the economy would thrive if each person were free to pursue their own gain, and to the greatest extent possible, actually  played out in the West. We are proof of concept, right?

Whatever we have, we naturally want more of. More ice cream, more choice, more opportunities. More for our kids, more for our businesses, more for our wealth.

 AND…

Whatever mountain we summit, whatever title we have, whatever exotic location we visit, we’re always going to ask “what’s next?” even before the ink is dry or before the plane has landed.

 These feel like human instincts, to want more, to pursue what’s next. And let’s be honest. As entrepreneurs, founders, starters & leaders – these words are the two big fat spark plugs that fire the pistons over and over in our engines. We live on the high that “more” and “next” bring us, barely giving ourselves time to enjoy that high before plunging headlong into what’s ahead.

And hey, it works, right? These engines rev pretty well.. It’s why they told us about Adam Smith in Economics 101. It’s what drives the S&P, your favorite VC and every freaking loyalty program (I swear I never signed up for half of these emails!). And part of the reason we never question it, why we don’t often think critically about the words “more” and “next”, is because we lump them together with a bigger and better word; a word that sounds like an unquestioned, unimpeachable good: GROWTH!

But is growth always good? We can throw out sayings like “if you’re not moving forward you’re moving backward”, or adopt values like “continuous improvement” which all fall under the ultimate goal of “growth” and seem to justify the idea.

What if we put the word “uncontrolled” or the words “the undisciplined pursuit of” in front of the word “growth”? Now is it good?

 "more businesses die choking on biting off more than they can chew, versus starving to death due to lack of opportunity" -StartUp Santa

For some of us, we’ve spent so long chasing growth. We never imagined that getting it might not always be good; or that there’s such a thing as growth that will stunt you. The less growth we’ve had or achieved, the more likely we believe that all growth is good. What’s more, in our most honest moments, we all likely can admit that in some ways we’ve sacrificed other good things to get growth: our health, our relationships, our spirituality (that’s what makes it “undisciplined”). 

That’s why “more” and “next” might actually be four-letter words we need to use less.