Lions led by Donkeys
You’ve heard it before: 70% of businesses fail.
Not true. The real number? 48%.
But that 70%? That staggering figure? That’s the five-year failure rate for companies on the Inc. Fastest Growing Companies list*. The companies that chased growth at all costs. The ones that burned brightest burned out. Businesses don’t always go out of business; when it comes to those who grow the fastest, they grow out of business.
Even if you never made the list, you are following the same path they did; your idealogy is the same: unrealistic task-based goals, ignoring operational efficiency, interviewing wave after wave of new people, and using “new and improved” (now fortified with more bullshit) Myers Briggs or other behavioral assessments or learning psychological tricks and manipulation to try to “get more.” At most companies, HR strategy could be rightly summed up as “bodies being thrown into the breach.”
Growth at all costs—even death. That’s the mantra of Western management. We glorify hustle, growth rates, expansion, and the endless pursuit of “more” while ignoring the very structure of our business and the work.
It’s no different from the British generals of World War I—sending wave after wave of young men over the hill into battle. Soldiers with unmatched courage, led by outdated thinking. German generals called it: “Lions led by donkeys.” Sound familiar? Jack Welch might as well have been their reincarnation.
Now, here we are in 2025. The battle cry hasn’t changed. Every email, podcast, LinkedIn guru, and self-proclaimed expert repeats the same mantra: GROW! And just like every year, the donkeys line up at the trough and prepare their troops to go over the hill.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Franchised companies, those who systemize, fail at just 15%. They’re designed to reduce variation, ensuring predictable, scalable, and profitable outcomes.
Ask yourself: which odds would you prefer if it was your money (for some of you, it is)?
When I was a kid, I told my mother what the other kids were doing. Her response? “If every dumb ass jumped in front of a moving train, would you do it too?” Common does not mean correct.
That train is still moving. The ideology of “growth at all costs” remains—and donkey after donkey lines up in front of you to jump.
The reality is that 62.5% of people have lower-than-average intelligence and the fact that I can say that and that people don’t question it proves my point.
If you want to obtain certainty, you have to decrease variation (there is no other way). Your 2025 growth strategy likely adds more variation to the equation, making your results even less certain than 2024. This is a reminder of the often misattributed quote to Albert Einstein** "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results"
There’s a time for everything, and the time to rethink your idealogy is now. Reject the destructive dogma of growth at all costs and embrace a strategy that builds certainty, stability, and sustainable profits.
What if you systematized your business and prioritized certainty over chaos? What if your competition did?
This is your moment to stop being an ass, make a plan, develop a system, and take the courage to step off the train tracks.
If you’re tired of failure and the “more” mantra, I invite you to walk a different path. Follow me and join my substack at. Or keep following the herd; a donkey in the corner office is still a donkey.