The more products, the more markets, the more alliances a company makes, the less money it makes.

stay attentive to those opportunities that require growth and question them before taking them. That’s it—one rule.

If you figure out why you need more, you can come to better conclusions, ones that might actually help both your business and your customers. Maybe you can turn down growth that doesn’t serve your company. Maybe you can create and sustain a tiny business that doesn’t overwork you or your staff and doesn’t ignore customers and still profits wildly.

In Japanese, shinise is the word for a long-lasting company. Interestingly, about 90 percent of all businesses worldwide that are more than 100 years old are Japanese. They all have fewer than 300 employees, and the ones that still exist never grow quickly or without great reason.

Gumi kept a relentless focus on serving customers and being absolute experts at their craft, and that focus enabled the construction company to be resilient enough to endure.

The goal here is to work your money in small steps. First, ensure that your company of one is making enough profit to cover your living expenses. Second, make sure you’ve got enough of a runway buffer built up to work full-time at your company of one, even if things get slow. Third, with your salary and runway buffer covered, you can reinvest money

I’ve got to consider how I can make the most of being in the prime of my earning potential and save for the future, when that might not be the case.

If inflation is approximately 3 percent per year, then you’re losing money on any assets you’ve got that aren’t making at least 3 percent per year in returns.

If you want to take four weeks a year as vacation, then you’ll need to set aside a month’s worth of extra savings (on top of your runway buffer). Unless you’ve got a recurring income stream (like recurring revenue from monthly software licenses), if you aren’t working, you may not be making money.