Over the years, I’ve seen a pattern: entrepreneurs who keep pushing to grow even when that growth isn’t healthy for the company. It’s not surprising — like the Geico ad says, “If you’re an entrepreneur, it’s what you do.” This is a behavior I’ve had to guard against myself. One of the things I do is cultivate personal interests outside of my company. Today I chair our city’s economic development board, I mentor a few younger founders and I helped start a nonprofit that recently purchased a tall ship for our city. These activities absorb plenty of energy, allowing me to pursue a more thoughtful growth path for our small restaurant company.

It took me a while to learn that lesson — that fast growth is not always good or healthy. In my 20s and early 30s, I thought you should always grow a company as big as it can get. If not for a more cautious partner, I probably would have grown our first company right into oblivion.