I can’t help but wonder if the constant chase of revenue growth for established and profitable companies is what results in stressed and overworked staff, constant firefighting, unhappy stakeholders, angry customers, and a never-ending backlog of tech debt. Shouldn’t businesses ask whether more is better? Or does a business reach a point where it is so big that it has no choice but to relentlessly strive for more?

What if a company purposely focused on not getting bigger? Instead, focusing on keeping existing customers and employees happy, fixing all the obvious problems, and just creating better and better products. Would that shift in focus lead to overall better outcomes?

There is the idea that our unhappiness stems from the gap between what we have and what we want. We feel that we can only achieve true happiness once we have that new piece of tech, that new car, that new house, or that fancy job. If we learn to appreciate what we have, we won’t feel such discontent, and will find the happiness we seek. If we substitute the concept of happiness for revenue, focusing on revenue growth will only lead to suffering, but perhaps focusing on internal factors may be the true path to sustainable long-term success.