The companies in this book have a message for every person who sets out to build a business, and it’s an important one: If the business survives, you will sooner or later have a choice about how far and how fast to grow. No one is going to warn you about it, or prepare you for it, or tell, you when the moment arrives. Chances are, your banker, your lawyer, your accountant, or whomever else you turn to for business advice will be encouraging you to grow as fast and as far as you can. The bigger your company becomes, the better their advice looks, and the more business you’re going to do with them in the future.

The outside world will be sending you similar signals. We all want to be successful, after all, and our visions of success are inevitably shaped to a large extent by examples in the media, by the spirit of the times, and by the common wisdom about what’s possible. If you constantly hear about the need to grow or die, if everybody seems to be trying to get to the next level, if the only companies being celebrated - or even, taken seriously - are the biggest, or the fastest-growing, you may never even think to ask about options other than growing your business as much as you can and as quickly as you can.