Ryan Deiss put his company sign on a highway in Austin and felt like he'd made it. But the moment he started chasing that ego hit instead of actual revenue, his company stopped growing. He learned that optimizing for how success looks kills the real thing.
Driving down Loop 1 (Mopac) in Austin, Texas.
A sign on the building (company name visible from the freeway).
I'll never forget one time being so proud. We finally had grown to a point. We moved into this new office space. We occupied enough of the building that I could have the thing that I always wanted for as long as I started my business. And that was a sign on the building. I remember being so proud, driving down Loop 1 Mopac in Austin, Texas, and crossing over and being able to see the building with our company name on the side of it. Just being so proud of that. Pointing out, telling all my friends, look at that. Look at that. Look. It almost didn't matter how big the company was, because I had a building with a sign on it that you could see from the freeway. Why did I want to do that? Because I wanted to feel legitimate. I wanted to feel like I've actually accomplished something. Revenue and profitability alone was not enough. I needed a sign on a building. And it's at this moment of peak ego and entrepreneurial enthusiasm that everything starts to go fricking sideways. What the heck's going on? Where's all the growth? Seriously, why isn't this working? And then ultimately, I'm a failure and we're all doomed.
