This is not about working hard -- of course you’re always going to work hard. It’s about working in a way that allows you to make your best decisions.

What holds you back is rarely team size – it's the clarity of your focus, skill and ability to execute. Larger teams mean slower progress, more management overhead, more meetings, more opinions, and usually dilution of vision and standards. Yet growing the team has somehow become a symbol of success.

I spoke to an ex Shopify employee today. He told me about what employees call a “Toby Tornado”. It made me appreciate Toby Lutke (CEO) even more. It goes like this: Toby follows random Slack channels across the company. He would sometimes drop a message in one of them and tell everyone that the project they’re collaborating on is canceled. Why? He... See more