Scope of Impact

Would you rather help 100 people make their lives 10x better or help 1,000 people make their lives 1x better?

That’s a challenge you’ll have to wrestle with if you ever start a business. Whether you put it in those terms or not.

Every business has natural constraints.

Your constraint might be time. For someone else’s business, it might be talent or expertise. For another business, it might be an economic equation. Or a combination of all of the above.

Constraints provide the limiting function of your ability to make an impact.

Because resources are limited, you must make decisions about where you allocate them. You must accept some tradeoffs as favorable compared to others, and accept the opportunity cost.

But when it comes to scope of impact, it’s also a matter of more than resources. Your disposition also matters.

Would you prefer to have a sizable impact on a small group of people, or a modest impact on a large group of people?

Something to ponder if you’re motivated by making an impact.