When a business struggles, the natural instinct is to look for what’s broken. Leaders search for weak spots, gaps, and inefficiencies, assuming that fixing these will unlock success. Investors look for risks to mitigate. Founders obsess over what’s missing rather than what’s working.
But the best operators, investors, and leaders think differently. Instead of focusing on what’s wrong, they ask:
What is already working that we can scale?
This shift in perspective is often the difference between stagnation and exponential growth. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, it forces you to identify small but powerful wins—and amplify them.
Finding the Bright Spots in 1990’s Vietnam
In Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, brothers Chip and Dan Heath tell the story of Jerry Sternin, a “Save the Children” expert who arrived in Vietnam in 1990 with a daunting mission: fight child malnutrition in some of the country’s poorest villages.
He had no real authority, little funding, and worse: he had only six months to make a difference. The conventional approach would have been to tackle the root causes—poverty, poor sanitation, lack of food access. But those were massive, systemic problems that couldn’t be solved in months.
Instead, Sternin did something radical: he searched for bright spots—children in the same impoverished conditions who were somehow well-nourished.
His team went village to village, observing families, and they discovered something remarkable. The healthiest children weren’t from wealthier homes. Their parents had just unknowingly adopted small but crucial habits:
• Instead of feeding their kids two large meals a day (the norm), they gave them four smaller meals, making digestion easier.
• They added tiny shrimp and greens—cheap and available but often overlooked—to their children’s rice.
• They actively fed their children instead of letting them eat on their own, ensuring they consumed enough food.
These behaviors weren’t costly or complex, yet they made a measurable difference. Sternin didn’t launch an expensive aid program or demand policy changes. He simply scaled what was already working.
By training other families to adopt the same habits, malnutrition rates dropped by 65% in affected villages—a change that lasted long after his departure.
The lesson?
Don’t start by fixing what’s broken. Find what’s already working and scale it.
How Patagonia Found Its Focus
Businesses often fall into the trap of constant reinvention, chasing new trends or overhauling strategies. But the best companies scale what’s already working.
Take Patagonia. In its early days, the company sold both climbing tools and outdoor apparel. Founder Yvon Chouinard noticed something surprising: their best-selling product wasn’t their innovative climbing gear—it was a simple, durable rugby shirt that climbers loved wearing.
Instead of chasing new product categories, Patagonia doubled down on apparel. That one decision turned it into one of the world’s most recognizable outdoor brands.
The Flywheel Effect
Jim Collins, in Good to Great, describes this principle as the Flywheel Effect—where success isn’t about a single dramatic move but about identifying what’s already turning the wheel and then applying force in the same direction.
The best companies don’t constantly reinvent themselves. They recognize what’s working, refine it, and scale it relentlessly.
This question applies across disciplines:
• In investing, the best funds don’t chase trends. They study what’s already compounding—whether it’s a business model, a sector, or an investment strategy—and find ways to increase exposure.
• In leadership, the best managers don’t try to fix every weakness. They identify the existing strengths of their team and empower people to lean into them.
• In personal growth, the most successful people don’t overhaul their routines overnight. They take the habits that are already working—exercise, reading, deep work—and find ways to do more of them.
Why This Matters
It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking success requires radical reinvention. But more often than not, the best opportunities come from recognizing and scaling what’s already working.
So next time you’re facing a big decision, take a step back and ask:
“What is already working that we can scale?”
The answer might be simpler—and more powerful—than you think.