Dream Big, Start Small, Scale Up


1 min read

A small kid staring at steps

One of my favorite things to do, whenever I get the chance, is to listen and analyze leaders who share their stories or life experiences. There is usually insight to learn how they got to the position they’re in.

When our company got acquired, the director of the new company shared his expectations and one thing that stuck to me was the way he communicated about growth.

Rather than talking about numbers or speaking on “businessy” terms like KPIs (Key performance indicators) or OKRs (Objectives and key results), he shared 3 simple steps that he lived out in the organization - 3 ways he believed each of us could adopt in order to bring change and impact to others:

  • Dream Big 💭

  • Start Small 🌱

  • Scale Up 🌳

And though he shared other cool things about the company, I was fixated by his statement to impact others through this framework:

  • Dream Big, because in order to know where you go in life, you need a big goal or vision.

  • Start Small, because you need to get good at consistency in taking small steps.

  • Scale Up, because once you can do something small really well, you can grow into a greater capacity.

These steps are ways I’m trying to slowly live out different goals in my own personal life:

For my faith, I want to cherish & own my personal relationship with God, so I’m trying to dedicate the mornings to devotions and prayer.

For my health, I want to have a set of clean teeth for as long as possible, so I’m trying to floss and brush my teeth every morning and evening.

For my practical skills, I hope one day to be able to cook a 7-8 course meal to (selfishly) bless my future family and friends, so I’m trying to learn to cook a different dish every week for my roommates.

By having a set goal, building up the habits, and learning to be consistent, though it can be mundane at times, I know that these small steps are necessary in order to live out a belief I have - the belief that what I do influences and changes lives, and ultimately glorifies God.

Through what we build, what we say, and how we live, I believe each of us has the ability to inspire and change the world.

To share a quote I was reflecting on this past week:

“Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it... Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again”

-Steve Jobs

And in order to bring about change, we must learn to build up habits that better ourselves and sets an example for others.

So if you have goals that you want to see come to fruition, have a big dream for the end goal, start making small steps consistently towards that goal, and scale up your impact once the habit is set.

Questions to ponder: 🤔

  1. What is one big dream that you want to see happen?

  2. What is one small step you can commit to consistently (daily, weekly, monthly) in order to see that dream come to fruition?