Growth at All Costs? Or a Life That Actually Matters?
By Nigel Bennett April 9, 2026
For over 30 years, I’ve been part of some incredible entrepreneurial communities—Entrepreneurs’ Organization, Birthing of Giants Program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and TIGER 21.
Across all of them, one message has echoed again and again:
“If you’re not growing, you’re dying.”
For a long time, I believed that.
Not halfway.
All in.
Chasing Growth Around the World
As co-founder and principal owner of our company, I felt a deep responsibility to grow it—to build something meaningful, something global.
And so I pushed.
Hard.
Six weeks at a time on the road. Mostly across Asia—Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia… sometimes Australia… then back through Taiwan and home to Vancouver.
It was relentless.
Land.
Meet the agent.
Drop the bags.
Straight into meetings.
Evenings were dinners, drinks, karaoke—part of the culture, part of the relationship-building. Then up the next morning, not feeling great, straight into another full day.
Three to five meetings. Every day.
Country after country.
Year after year.
I did that for nearly 20 years.
At the time, I told myself:
This is what it takes. This is how you grow. “I am doing it for my family”.
What I Wasn’t Seeing
At home, my kids were young.
And I was gone—a lot.
Not just physically. Emotionally too.
And while the business was growing, something else was quietly eroding:
My health
My presence as a father and husband
My connection to the life I was supposedly building all of this for
I didn’t fully see it at the time.
Or maybe I chose not to.
The Wake-Up Call
One morning in Taipei, after about six weeks on the road, I woke up feeling dizzy.
I went into the bathroom.
And I passed out.
I had a seizure. My head hit the toilet. I could hear my feet hitting the floor.
When I came to, there was no big speech.
Just one clear thought:
“I have to go home.”
That moment cracked something open.
For the first time, I really asked:
What am I doing—and what is this costing me?
A Voice That Stayed With Me
Around that same time, a friend of mine—Trevor Bowles, a former CFL lineman—pulled me into Entrepreneurs’ Organization.
He looked me in the eye and said:
“Nigel, don’t sacrifice your family for your business. Don’t sacrifice your health for your business. Never do that.”
Simple.
But it landed.
A Turning Point in the Amazon
Part of my shift didn’t come from a boardroom or a business book.
It came from the jungle.
Spending time deep in the Amazon with my family, taking part in sacred ceremony with the Achuar people, was one of those moments in life where everything slows down enough for you to actually see clearly.
No emails.
No deals.
No growth targets.
Just people. Nature. Presence.
I remember sitting there thinking:
What am I doing?
Why am I pushing so hard to grow this business?
Why am I chasing this idea of a big exit?
Who am I really doing this for?
There were a lot of questions.
Not a lot of answers—at least not right away.
But something shifted.
Continuing the Path
That experience didn’t end there.
It continued through my friendship with Jhaimy Alvarez Acosta—an Andean wisdom keeper, curandero, and shaman from Cusco, Peru.
Through continuing on that path of ceremony and learning, I began to understand something that transcends business, culture, and belief systems:
It’s all pointing to the same thing.
We are not meant to live in isolation.
We are meant to live in:
Connection
Community
Reciprocity
And yet, the way I had been operating—constantly traveling, pushing for growth, chasing outcomes—was pulling me further away from that.
The Question That Changed Everything
That time didn’t give me a clean answer.
But it gave me a much better question:
What does a good life actually look like?
Not just successful.
But good.
That question has guided me ever since.
What It Really Means to Build a Business
Through years of coaching with Kevin Lawrence and learning from The 4 Forces of Growth, I came to understand something important:
It’s not your job to do everything.
It’s your job to build something that works.
But again, I kept coming back to the deeper question:
How big does it really need to be?
What I’ve Seen After the Big Exit
Over the years, I’ve watched many peers:
Push hard.
Scale fast.
Sell for large sums.
And I celebrate that.
But I’ve also gone back and visited them a year or two later.
And often, something has changed.
There’s a loss of identity.
A loss of purpose.
Sometimes even depression.
The team is gone.
The structure is gone.
The rhythm is gone.
And they’re left with:
“Now what?”
The Myth of the Big Payday
We’re taught that a big payout equals happiness.
It doesn’t.
Not without purpose.
I’ve seen it too many times:
Big sale
Big celebration
Big spending
Then a void.
Because what was lost wasn’t just the business.
It was meaning.
Reframing the “Lifestyle Business”
People have said to me:
“Nigel, you run a lifestyle business.”
And I say:
Yes. And I’m proud of that.
Because to me, that means:
A strong, profitable company
A team that feels like family
Shared success
Time for life
This isn’t small thinking.
It’s intentional living.
Life Rhythm, Not Just Balance
Today, my life looks different.
My wife Reiko and I:
Start our day with movement and a hike
Spend time connecting with friends
Live with more presence
And I still engage with the business.
But differently.
A couple of hours a day.
Connected—but not consumed.
Purpose Is the Real Currency
What I’ve learned is this:
People don’t struggle because they stop working.
They struggle because they lose purpose
Purpose can come from:
Business
Family
Community
Giving back
For us, contributing and volunteering are a big part of life.
That’s where meaning lives.
A Shift We Need to Make
I believe growth at all costs is outdated.
It’s not working.
We need a shift.
Back to:
Community
Connection
Purpose
Back to businesses that:
Support people
Create shared success
Make a difference
Final Reflection
At the end of your life, you won’t say:
“I wish I worked more.”
You’ll say:
“I wish I was there more.”
“I wish I connected more.”
So I ask:
If success costs you your health, your family, and your life… is it really success?
After 30+ years, I’m still learning this.
Still refining it.
Still living it.
But one thing I know for sure:
It’s not about building the biggest business.
It’s about building a life—and a business—that actually matters.
As I wrote in Take That Leap – Risking It All for What Really Matters:
Sometimes the biggest leap isn’t toward more growth—
it’s toward alignment with what truly matters.