The Hidden Path: Growth by Subtraction

My first lesson in growth by subtraction came from my maternal grandmother, Martha.

She grew up on a small farm in Fayetteville, Tennessee, and always had a vegetable garden. Because Martha (aka, Grandmother) was my favorite person in the world—sorry, Mom and Dad—I would follow her as she worked among the beans, squash, and flowers.

And don’t forget the tomatoes. Grandmother showed me how new sprouts would appear in the crooks of the established branches and stems. She called these sprouts “suckers” and explained why we needed to pinch them off. When left intact, suckers would keep growing and consume water and nutrients that should go to the tips of stems where they could become flowers and eventually tomatoes.

Pinching off suckers seemed backwards. How do you get more tomatoes when you have less, er, plant? I certainly hadn’t learned addition by subtraction in math class.

Later, Grandmother always delivered ample proof, mounds of big, juicy tomatoes, more than enough to share with the neighbors.

Pinch off suckers, get higher yields. Right you are, Grandmother.

After I became an entrepreneur, I started seeing the same underlying principle, growth by subtraction, in other domains. Here are two instances:

• In Adagia, first published in 1500, the Dutch priest, Desiderius Erasmus, gave us this adage in Latin: Duos insequens lepores, neutrum capit. “Chasing two hares, he catches neither.” Or, to state the inverse: Put all your effort into a single goal, and you’re more likely to achieve it.
• After being appointed Braun’s Director of Design in 1961, Dieter Rams began developing the company’s design philosophy in his “Ten Principles for Good Design.” At their heart was a single idea: Weniger, aber besser. Less, but better. Eliminate to improve.

It’s fascinating to me that people across eras, cultures, languages, geography, and occupation can arrive at the same insight as my grandmother who used to make her own dresses from feed sacks. Strategic subtraction produces superior results.

One of the most dramatic subtraction stories I’ve heard happened after Steve Jobs returned to Apple in July 1997. At the Macworld event the following month, Jobs described the product strategy as a “mess,” consisting of 350 active products and projects.

To combat the mess, Jobs and Jony Ive developed their now-famous 2x2 product matrix (Consumer vs. Professional, Desktop vs. Portable) and pruned the lineup by 97% to only 10 products. The rest is history:

• In 1997 Apple had $7.1 billion in revenue and lost $1.04 billion, the worst performance in company history.
• In 1998 Apple had $5.94 billion in revenue and $309 million in profit.
• In 1999 Apple had $6.13 billion in revenue and $601 million in profit.

Of course, you and I aren't running Apple. We don't have 350 active projects or billions on the line. I, for one, can barely read stories about Apple now without rolling my eyes.

Still, we have a similar problem on a smaller scale. Our time, attention, energy, money, team, and enthusiasm are limited, and addition spreads this mustard across multiple offers, channels, audiences, projects, and so-called priorities. Our single best growth opportunity or our top priority barely gets a taste.

Growth by subtraction offers a different approach.

The question changes from “What can I start?” to “What can I stop?” Pinching the suckers frees up resources for what matters most:

• Killing pretty good offers so that the entire marketing effort goes into a single, great offer (like Sam Vander Wielen did with her The Ultimate Bundle)
• Firing your biggest client to go from two target audiences served to one (like Kendra Wright at Rebel Media Agency)
• Identifying your most profitable type of project and going all in on it (like Carson Holmquist and Stream Logistics; see Chapter 1 in 10X Is Easier Than 2X).

Mind you, the goal isn't subtraction for its own sake any more than the goal is addition for its own sake. I can think of a specific founder I worked with indirectly who gets into a fear-driven manic state each autumn and cuts things that were working or things that simply needed more time.

The goal also isn’t making your business as small and neat as possible, like a bonsai tree. A bonsai tree is a hobby. A bonsai tree won’t feed you.

The goal of growth by subtraction is strategic, proactive pruning that accomplishes the following:

• Clarifies what the highest potential or most promising opportunities for growth even are
• Clears away old or competing opportunities, projects, and priorities (aka, suckers)
• Concentrates limited resources where they can produce the desired results
• Restores the founder’s passion, optimism, and clarity

Plenty of founders are out there working hard and making moves but not feeling much momentum. We’re the donkeys in that adage: “If hard work led to success, the donkey would own the farm.”

The difference between a donkey and a founder with momentum is clarity, conviction, and commitment to a specific vision. Subtraction helps us get the order right:

• Subtraction brings clarity.
• Once founders have clarity, they can reach a state of conviction.
• Once they have conviction, they find it easy to make a firm commitment, even if that commitment brings discomfort and hard decisions.
• Commitment fuels momentum.

Or, maybe it’s more accurate to say that commitment produces a cascade of decisions, and they create the momentum.

Once you choose to eliminate competing priorities and reduce your own cognitive load, you will have more spaciousness and attention. You will see your one or two most promising opportunities. Your offer, audience, positioning, and messaging will come into clear, sharp focus. Your marketing narrows and becomes more manageable, fun even. Delivery becomes streamlined and repeatable.

Your team gets better at fewer things. Profit goes up. You earn more doing less.

Complexity doesn’t scale. Simplicity does.

If your complex business isn’t giving you the life you want, find the simpler, more profitable business hidden inside of it.

Now here’s where things get tough. We can agree with growth by subtraction from a philosophical standpoint, but we still have to find the courage to cut, to turn principle into pruning shears.

Do you know the founder of a creative agency in the $500K to $2 million range? I’ve been having virtual (or real) coffees with them and asking them three questions about their top challenges before I switch over and do some free coaching. If that sounds like anyone you know, I’d appreciate an introduction. Or, if you’re annoyed I’d even ask, then ignore me and watch this dog, Jorge, reunited with his owner.