Know yourself betterFor founders who want to start on the work now, on their own.

Don't be the ceiling on your own business

The better founders understand themselves, the better they play to their strengths, round out their weaknesses, and make sure they're not the limiting factor in their business's growth. This page is for founders who want to start on that work now, on their own.

Start with the eight patterns ↓
Jonathan O'Byrne looking through a glass panel covered in hand-drawn illustrations
Image 01 The patterns that built the business are usually the ones that cap it. You have to see them before you can change them.

The eight patterns

Most founders run two or three of these at once. Each is an asset that got the business started and, left unexamined, becomes the constraint.

  • Sensitive

    The asset
    Deep focus, highly original products
    The ceiling
    Invisible leadership; retreats in a crisis
    A place to start
    Make your thinking visible: a short weekly note to the team on what you're seeing and deciding

  • Persuasive

    The asset
    Opens doors and closes deals
    The ceiling
    Chases momentum over substance
    A place to start
    Choose three numbers that measure the business, not its momentum, and review them weekly

  • Hyper-Independent

    The asset
    Extreme capability; highly reliable
    The ceiling
    A bottleneck; a team trained into dependency
    A place to start
    Write down the decisions only you make, and hand one over this quarter

  • Expressive

    The asset
    Sells the vision; raises money
    The ceiling
    Performance substitutes for substance
    A place to start
    Before the next pitch, ask whoever runs your numbers what the plan really costs

  • Invulnerable

    The asset
    Resilient; commands respect
    The ceiling
    A culture of fear
    A place to start
    Each month, ask your team something you don't know the answer to, and let them see that

  • Persevering

    The asset
    Extraordinary persistence
    The ceiling
    Won't let people go; quietly takes everything on
    A place to start
    List what you're carrying that someone else should, and pass one item on this month

  • Over-Focused

    The asset
    Raises the bar for everyone
    The ceiling
    Team burnout; perfects rather than ships
    A place to start
    Agree what “good enough” means before you start, and ship at that standard

  • Accommodating

    The asset
    Builds harmonious cultures
    The ceiling
    Direction set by the loudest voice
    A place to start
    Write down the direction you'd set if no one else had an opinion, and share it first

Ten scaling roadblocks

Score yourself from 1 to 10 on each. The highest scores are where to start.

  1. 1Wrong headcount for the work
  2. 2Cash and cashflow
  3. 3Growth pace: too fast or too slow
  4. 4The wrong people in key roles
  5. 5Founder overwhelm
  6. 6Expertise that lives only in your head
  7. 7Too many generalists, not enough specialists
  8. 8Stress at home
  9. 9Not being able to switch off
  10. 10Good plans that don't get implemented

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