Sep 8, 2026 · 1 hr 6 min · 12 segments
*With hosts David Altena & Rob Bull and special guest: Dr Paul Wood, author of Better Never Stops.* Growth and improvement aren't the same thing. Some businesses get bigger and more complicated. Some…
David AltenaHost
Rob BullHost
Yeah, fail fast, fail forward, right? So now, in your mind, and if we think about this from a business owner's perspective, where's that line between healthy, continuous improvement, but actually feeling like nothing's ever good enough?
Yeah, it's an interesting one, right? Because the reality is, is people who start small business, they're not your normal people.
People who go into business, they're already a smaller percentage of the population who are striving, who are striving to try and do something which has more meaning for them and has more opportunity for them to pursue their potential.
And the people who are listening to this, you know, the people you work with are the bloody racehorses.
So I actually think part of it is that ability to go, hey, the chronic dissatisfaction of the overachiever can be a tool that I can employ to motivate me going forward.
And one of the things I'd say is that, you know, for people who are listening to this, you need to get good at going, okay, that anxiety, that dissatisfaction, That's what motivation feels like.
But I'm going to also make sure that I build in high-performance habits in my life, high-performance routines that enable me to have downtime from that distress.
Because while it's motivational, it'll consume me and burn me up and stop me from being able to appreciate the journey and the successes along the way unless I build in really deliberate recovery.
Well, that's good, right? Everyone's trying to get somewhere, then they get somewhere and go, oh, it's not actually that great.
And in the book, I refer to this, right? It's called the Deferred Life Hypothesis.
This is where you go, oh, just when the business generates this much revenue, that's when I'll be relaxed and happy.
One of the funny bits of research they've done is look at people who make millions and millions of dollars a year.
Yeah, fail fast, fail forward, right? So now, in your mind, and if we think about this from a business owner's perspective, where's that line between healthy, continuous improvement, but actually feeling like nothing's ever good enough?
Yeah, it's an interesting one, right? Because the reality is, is people who start small business, they're not your normal people.
People who go into business, they're already a smaller percentage of the population who are striving, who are striving to try and do something which has more meaning for them and has more opportunity for them to pursue their potential.
And the people who are listening to this, you know, the people you work with are the bloody racehorses.
So I actually think part of it is that ability to go, hey, the chronic dissatisfaction of the overachiever can be a tool that I can employ to motivate me going forward.
And one of the things I'd say is that, you know, for people who are listening to this, you need to get good at going, okay, that anxiety, that dissatisfaction, That's what motivation feels like.
But I'm going to also make sure that I build in high-performance habits in my life, high-performance routines that enable me to have downtime from that distress.
Because while it's motivational, it'll consume me and burn me up and stop me from being able to appreciate the journey and the successes along the way unless I build in really deliberate recovery.
Well, that's good, right? Everyone's trying to get somewhere, then they get somewhere and go, oh, it's not actually that great.
And in the book, I refer to this, right? It's called the Deferred Life Hypothesis.
This is where you go, oh, just when the business generates this much revenue, that's when I'll be relaxed and happy.
One of the funny bits of research they've done is look at people who make millions and millions of dollars a year.
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