All technology challenges are really just people challenges.
Actually, scratch that.
Every business challenge - whether it’s sales, marketing, operations, finance, technology - whatever - is ultimately a people challenge.
Think about it for a second.
Everything - from the vision, the goals, and the objectives we set, down to the teams we rely on to execute and the technology platforms we depend on - it’s all just people.
So no matter what success metric or growth target you’re aiming for in your business, at the end of the day, achieving it comes down to one thing: the growth of your people.
So, how do we actually grow people?
It comes down to two things: experience and beliefs.
Experience
We don’t grow just by doing the same things every day. We grow by exposing ourselves to new experiences.
Experience is how we gain new information. And the quality of our growth depends on how often we push ourselves beyond what’s familiar.
Some people actively seek out new challenges, learn from different perspectives, and put themselves in situations where they’re forced to adapt. Others stay in their comfort zone, repeating the same routines, expecting things to change without actually changing anything.
New experiences give us new information. But experience and information alone are not enough - we need to do something with it.
What makes us do things?
Beliefs
Beliefs are the cornerstone of all our decisions and therefore actions. Decisions themselves are illusions. We don’t decide - we simply act according to what we believe in at the time.
Every action is the culmination of everything we believe at a particular moment. If you want different outcomes, don’t focus on forcing better decisions - shift the beliefs that make those decisions inevitable. When beliefs change, actions follow.
At the core, growth is just a loop of experience and beliefs. We experience something new. That experience shapes what we believe. And what we believe dictates our actions.
And just like individuals, businesses follow the same loop.
A company that consistently exposes itself to new challenges and adapts its thinking will grow. But at the end of the day, a company is just the sum of its people. Its growth is entirely dependent on whether its people are growing - whether they’re being given the right experiences and whether their beliefs are being shaped in a way that pushes them forward.
One way teams gain new experiences is when new people join. A fresh perspective introduces different ways of thinking, challenges existing ideas, and pushes everyone to adapt. But in the end, it comes down to who that person actually is.
Whether they elevate the team or not isn’t about how open others are to change - it’s about whether the right person was brought in to begin with. A good hire shapes the team; a bad one stagnates it.
And ironically, this still comes back to people. The effectiveness of hiring, just like everything else, depends on the people making those decisions.
This is why growing people isn’t just a “nice to have.” It’s a necessity. Businesses don’t grow because of strategy alone. They grow because their people do.
But here’s the reality - not everyone grows at the same pace.
Some people outgrow their roles. Some roles outgrow people.
And some people don’t need to grow at all.
Growth is subjective. If someone is truly content with who they are and the life they’re living, that is not failure - it’s peace. There’s nothing more blissful than being content with exactly who you are.
But for those who do want to grow, it comes down to two things: experiences and beliefs.
If you feel like your business is stagnating, or personally, if you’re feeling stuck, ask yourself:
- Are you gaining new experiences that push you forward?
- Or is it your beliefs which are holding you back?
Because businesses don’t grow on their own - people do.