Chasing more ... but why?

Lately, I’ve been noticing something.

We talk a lot about numbers.

Conversion rates, new customer growth, churn, CAC, retention, margin, bottom line. How can we squeeze just a little bit more out of the funnel? Out of our costs, out of our people, out of our customers?

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good dashboard as much as anyone. But somewhere along the way, the numbers started feeling... heavier. More urgent. Less like a guide, and more like the goal.

And it got me thinking.

I recently saw an interview with a founder of a small iced tea company. The interviewer asked him why his prices hadn’t gone up in the last 5 or 10 years. And the founder looked genuinely confused. His answer?

“Why would I raise them? My costs are covered. I make a living. I’m profitable. Why punish my customers just to make more?”

And honestly, that hit me.

Because the real question is:

When is enough enough?

Somewhere in business, we swapped “enough” for “more”. More revenue. More growth. More margin. But rarely: more purpose. More people focus. More values. And almost never: more enough.

It feels like fewer companies are willing to say: “We’re doing well. Let’s focus on consistency, on customer care, on quality. Not just on scaling for scaling’s sake.”

That mindset, like the one in the interview, is starting to feel like a unicorn. A rare exception, rather than the rule.

And I wonder what that says about where we’re heading.

What happens when “more” becomes the only measure of success?

What does it do to employees, when every year they’re told to do more with less?

What does it do to customers, when loyalty is rewarded with price hikes or cost-cut convenience?

What does it do to us, as a society, when we stop asking what kind of businesses we want to build, and start only asking how big they can get?

I don’t have the answers. But I do think we need to be asking better questions.

Because growth is only good if it’s sustainable. Profit is only powerful if it doesn’t come at the cost of people. And numbers are only useful if we remember what - and who - is behind them.

Let’s not lose sight of enough.