Scale Destroys Lives

There is an appeal to building something large that is almost impossible to argue with until you have done it and had the chance to look back clearly at what it actually cost you.

I have been through the big build. Five to seven years of sustained effort, working around the clock, in pursuit of an outcome that statistically materialises for roughly five percent of the people who attempt it. The mathematics of it are uncomfortable when you state them plainly: you need somewhere around ten million in annual recurring revenue to clear a reasonable founder salary, possibly significantly more once you account for what the business consumes in order to sustain itself at that size. The stress is not occasional, it is structural - built into the model, present every morning before you have done anything. And the lifestyle produced during the build phase is one that most people, if someone described it to them honestly before they started, would not voluntarily choose.

I know this because I’ve succeeded and I’ve failed, and the loss from the latter was total enough that I had to reconstruct everything from first principles. What came out of that process was a set of rules I have not deviated from since. Here’s a sample few if you’re interested;

• Don't start a business from scratch when you can buy one that already works.

• Don't sell physical products when you can sell expertise, access, or outcomes that require no inventory and carry no logistics risk.

• Don't build legacy infrastructure when a lean, modern model produces the same result with a fraction of the liability attached.

• Invest in the S&P (or similar) consistently rather than hedging across instruments.

• Invest excess capital in real estate rather than speculation.

• Own your assets outright wherever possible, because the person whose fixed outgoings are minimal cannot be meaningfully damaged by any downturn, regardless of how severe. I don’t go for lease culture.

Behind all of that sits a more fundamental shift in how I think about the sequence of decisions. Most people build the business first and hope the life follows. They assume that if the commercial outcomes are good enough, the life they actually want will eventually materialise on the other side of the effort. It rarely does, because by the time the business is built the habits, dependencies, and obligations that come with it have already shaped the life in ways that are difficult to undo.

The more useful sequence is to start with the life…

What does a genuinely good week look like?

Who do you want to spend time with and how much of it?

How much do you actually need to earn to live well, as opposed to how much would make a good number to say out loud?

Build the business to fund and fit that answer, rather than building it first and hoping the answer changes to fit the business.

You don't have many seven-year cycles available to you. The three I spent learning this was expensive in ways that extended well beyond money. How will you spend yours?