Moving beyond incremental thinking
Time to read: 4 minutes
Hi Reader
Her expression told me before I finished the sentence. "I don't want that," she said, defensively.
We were talking about her business. I'd asked what it might look like if it were 10x bigger. More clients. More revenue. More complexity.
But she wasn't rejecting growth. She was rejecting her idea of what that growth would mean.
When We Solve Too Small
We often approach challenges with incremental thinking, but doing this limits our perspective and the options we bring to the table.
We solve for what we know. For what feels possible inside our current way of working.
It's the solo consultant refining their offer (again), instead of stepping into something bolder and more aligned. The creative re-working their website, rather than addressing what's keeping them invisible.
They tweak their calendar instead of questioning why they're so overrun. Delegate a few more tasks instead of redesigning how decisions get made. Optimise systems that shouldn't exist in the first place.
It's 10% thinking. Incremental thinking. Safe thinking. And it keeps you tethered to your current way of operating, even when that way of operating has become the thing holding you back.
You make things more efficient without questioning whether they still serve where you're going.
A New Frame Of Reference
That's where the 10x question becomes useful – not as a target, but as a mirror.
What would break if you had to run 10x more discovery calls? Deliver 10x more client outcomes? Be 10x more impactful than you are now?
What if your business had to scale overnight? What systems would crumble? What roles would collapse? Where are you still the glue holding everything together?
Maybe it's your calendar. Your content process. The belief that you have to do it all manually, or that it has to be perfect before it leaves your desk.
These are uncomfortable questions. But that's exactly the point.
But they surface the truths that you've probably been avoiding. And the ones that will never be revealed if you stick with 10% thinking.
When I asked that founder to sit with the discomfort – not to plan for 10x growth, but to see what 10x would reveal – she paused. Then she laughed, realising just how tightly she'd engineered herself into every corner of the business.
She'd been making herself indispensable in places where she didn't need to be. She was solving problems that shouldn't have existed. She'd built a business that felt connected but that couldn't function without her constant oversight.
The 10x lens didn't make her want to scale (yet). It made her want to design better.
Beyond Optimisation
You don't need to be scaling fast to use 10x thinking. The point isn't to go bigger. It's to see differently.
10x reveals what's fragile. What's over-engineered. What only works because you're propping it up with effort and attention.
And once you see it, you can choose to redesign.
Maybe it's how you make decisions. Or how you plan your week. Maybe it's the bottleneck you've become. Or the invisible ceiling you've built around your visibility, delivery, or impact.
The changes don't have to be radical, just intentional. Take what the 10x lens reveals and use it to shape what you do today.
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Ready to 10x your approach and impact?
We'll reshape how you lead and operate to scale your impact without adding 10% to your effort.
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Wrap Up
Most high achievers are optimisation experts. But sometimes, the work isn't to improve the system, it's to question the system.
10x is just a lens. But it can reveal where you're solving too small. Or where you've outgrown the role you built for yourself.
It's not about whether you want to grow by 10x (although it can certainly help for that too). It's about what 10x thinking reveals about how you're operating right now.
So this weekend, reflect on your own 10x question:
What would break if your current approach had to scale 10x tomorrow – and what's that trying to tell you?
Reply and let me know what this reveals for you. I read every message and I'll share a personalised reply back with my thoughts.
Stay ambitious.
Rob
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