The Four Forces of Growth — Why I Wrote This Book

I’m incred­i­bly excit­ed to final­ly share some big news. On Novem­ber 4^th, my new book, The Four Forces of Growth: Defy the Odds and Keep Your Com­pa­ny Scal­ing, will be offi­cial­ly launched.

This one has been a long time com­ing. To be hon­est, writ­ing books doesn’t come easy for me. It’s hard work — and this one took years longer than I expect­ed. But I can say, with­out ques­tion, it’s worth it. Because it cap­tures some­thing I’ve seen over and over again in 30 years of work­ing with growth-mind­ed CEOs and their teams:

Many are work­ing real­ly hard using good tools, sol­id frame­works, and putting in incred­i­ble effort, but not get­ting the growth they want.

Why I Wrote It

Across hun­dreds of com­pa­nies, I kept notic­ing a pat­tern.
 Lead­ers were doing ​“the right things.” They were deep in exe­cu­tion, fine-tun­ing oper­a­tions, rolling out new ini­tia­tives, chas­ing KPIs — yet their growth had stalled.

They weren’t fail­ing. In fact, many were run­ning high­ly suc­cess­ful, com­plex busi­ness­es. But they were los­ing focus on the real dri­vers of growth.

The more suc­cess­ful a com­pa­ny becomes, the more noise it cre­ates: more mov­ing parts, more prob­lems, more dis­trac­tions. And over time, lead­ers start believ­ing that solv­ing today’s prob­lems is their job, when in real­i­ty, that’s how they lose sight of tomorrow’s opportunities.

That insight led me to the mod­el that sits at the heart of this book, The Four Forces of Growth — inspired by the four forces of flight.

From Flight to Growth

A few years ago, I was talk­ing with an expe­ri­enced pilot, Kim ​“KC” Camp­bell, who explained a con­cept called spa­tial dis­ori­en­ta­tion. It’s a con­di­tion that caus­es pilots to become so dis­ori­ent­ed they believe they’re fly­ing the right way up when they’re actu­al­ly head­ed straight down.

And it hit me — that’s exact­ly what hap­pens to many growth companies.

They’re work­ing with con­vic­tion, fol­low­ing their instincts, but they’re dis­ori­ent­ed. They’ve lost sight of the true forces that sus­tain growth.

Once I saw it, I couldn’t unsee it.

What the Book Covers

The Four Forces of Growth helps lead­ers rec­og­nize and rebal­ance the com­pet­ing dynam­ics that dri­ve, or derail their growth.

At its core, it explains the four forces that deter­mine whether your orga­ni­za­tion climbs, stalls, or sinks:

1. Oppor­tu­ni­ties — the lift that dri­ves you upward.
2. Prob­lems — the weight that pulls you down.
3. Courage — the thrust that moves you forward.
4. Fear — the drag that slows you down.

Every com­pa­ny is always deal­ing with these forces. Growth hap­pens when you have the courage to pur­sue oppor­tu­ni­ties and the dis­ci­pline to keep fear and prob­lems from dom­i­nat­ing your attention.

You can’t improve your way to growth. You have to focus your way there.

The Big­ger Picture

This book builds on every­thing I’ve learned from my pre­vi­ous work.

• Scal­ing Up was about scal­ing your organization.
• Your Oxy­gen Mask First was about scal­ing your­self as a leader.
• The Four Forces of Growth is about under­stand­ing the invis­i­ble dynam­ics that dri­ve or stall your company’s growth.

And it starts with redefin­ing what growth real­ly means.
It’s not about get­ting big­ger. It’s about dri­ving more of your core units (your ​“X’s,” as I call them — trans­ac­tions, cus­tomers, prod­ucts, loca­tions) while sus­tain­ing or improv­ing prof­itabil­i­ty per unit.

Bet­ter is great. But big­ger and bet­ter is where the real mag­ic happens.

One Ques­tion to Leave You With

What would hap­pen if you and your team had one extra day every week — ful­ly focused on growth?

That’s the ques­tion The Four Forces of Growth will help you answer.

The tools in the book are sim­ple, prac­ti­cal, and already test­ed with growth CEOs and teams around the world. Once you see the mod­el, you can’t unsee it. It will change how you lead growth forever.

You can pre-order the book now (or order it direct­ly if you’re read­ing this after Novem­ber 4^th) on Ama​zon​.ca or Ama​zon​.com or vis­it 4Force​sOf​Growth​.com for free resources and tools to help you assess and fire up your own growth engine.

I hope you find it as valu­able to read as it was to write.

Enjoy the ride — and keep your eyes on growth.