Over fifty business owners shared their sincere feedback on the article ‘No one likes to spend, but everyone loves to solve their problems’.  

To read the part 1 of this article, click here 

Some owners stated their hearts out on growth stagnating and killing orientation.  

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They asked: 

1. How absurd this whole truth about spending versus solving problems appear—yet so many accomplished owners I know of, including me, fall prey to such an orientation, delaying growth by size and speed for many years now? 
2. Why do I see spending on high-end consulting services as giving a piece of my wealth while, in truth, I am only investing for my dream such that the rewards will never stop growing – and possibly grow for years exponentially? What kind of business thinking am I doing? And why? 
3. Why do such truths need to be told, and why do I not hold awareness and hence lose time and opportunity? On top of that, I feel pride in saving money and being judicious but inadvertently wasting priceless and irreversible time. 
   …and a few more. 

I took these questions with great respect and care to help these owners and other readers. 

I decided to deliberate and conduct an in-depth discussion with some of my greatest people whom my clients love and admire.  

At first glance, it appears that people have conditioning and governing beliefs about money. Especially concerning the psychology of spending psychology.  

But, on a second glance and a rather deeper look, many interesting facts about identity have emerged too. 

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I am sharing one here: 

Some owners save money by pausing growth or stifling the required growth speed. These owners pride themselves on saving money more than accomplishing goals. 

Identity clash is a reason. 

They believe: “I use the money judiciously and use loads of caution. It is a good thing. It pays off because I get to save money.”  

Now, nothing is wrong with this spending psychology except the context in which you use this to identify your pride.  
The above statement fits the cost leadership gurus but is completely against growth leadership psychology. 

Long-term, growth-led strategic advantages are met with strategic investments.  
With cost leadership psychology, your decisions on strategic growth could be missing the point and the growth that otherwise could be yours easily, at speed, and in volume. 

“To achieve long-term strategic goals, the only thing you must use judiciously is care for time, respect for uncertainty, acceptance of unknowns, and admiration of ambiguity.” 

Suppose you are habitual to pull off spending decisions under urgent, painful, and expensive conditions.  

In that case, you must take this as a warning and start learning what skills to develop for business growth, strategic advantage, strategic planning & decision-making.  

The reason you do this is because you cannot take accountability. 

You want another reason, such as an agent to absorb the cause of your decision on your behalf, calling it an urgent, expensive, and painful situation that perfectly warrants a decision to spend.  

Hence, avoid conflicts with others and mainly your never-ending inner conflict when you spend what you believe is not justified to your cautious nature that has nothing to do with growth but safety and non-accountability. 

You are having a case or a situation that justifies its merit. You do not want to fight with people around for the choice you made, and hence, you like an agent to take all the onus, and you simply become an obedient caretaker of the situation to solve it via the resources you have.  

You do this and lose all your capacity to be a growth leader.  

A growth leader is about foreseeing the vision and making bold, non-urgent, non-expensive, and non-painful decisions today. A growth leader makes all-important (not urgent), investment-led (not expensive), and painful decisions today for the growth and ultimate future that matters. 

The only way to win strategic advantages in the given time window of sweet spot opportunity is when you spend early in the game with strategic planning and execution prowess of daily execution discipline.  

You need to isolate their spending psychology and think from the perspective of what in the big picture they want to achieve and by when and what uncertainties and odds they need to get square with. 

If you are prideful in being a cost leader, you must hold a different mindset, skills, abilities, and capacities for leading growth. If your self-talk identifies you as great at saving cost and a reasonable spender, watch out; your pride is in the way.  

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A growth leader identifies himself with all-encompassing growth. The pride of growth leaders is in their purpose, timeliness, speed, radical change, thriving, and not saving money. In other words, not surviving is their pride but thriving. 

Cost leaders identify themselves with the best of the worst survival pride, whilst growth leaders identify themselves with the best of the best thriving. 

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