Entrepreneurs are wired to move—toward new ideas, new initiatives, and new opportunities. Our instincts tell us to latch on to new things and keep the forward momentum going. This instinct helped fuel years of rapid expansion at Chenal Family Therapy (CFT), which I founded in 2010, including seven consecutive years on the Inc. 5,000 list. But it also created strain.

At the height of our growth, this strain showed up throughout the day-to-day mechanics of the business. We were opening new offices and expanding to new geographies, new clinicians were joining, and new insurance relationships were being layered in, all in rapid succession. Each decision made sense in isolation. Together, they pushed the system beyond what it could reliably support.