When did our goal become our limit?

I’ve learned a tremendous amount from Jim Collins over the years.

One idea in particular has shaped the way we’ve built EOS Worldwide: the 20-Mile March from Great by Choice.

Collins tells the story of two teams racing to the South Pole. One pushed hard whenever conditions were favorable and slowed down when they weren’t. The other marched about 15 to 20 miles every single day, regardless of the weather.

That idea really stuck with me.

Early on, our version of the 20-Mile March was adding 8 to 12 new EOS Implementers every quarter.

It worked beautifully. Quarter after quarter, EOS Worldwide steadily grew.

But eventually, the organization reached a different stage, and I started wondering whether we’d become too conservative. So in 2022 and 2023, we took the lid off and brought on far more Implementers than we normally would.

It created exactly what Jim Collins warned about.

We were growing in bursts instead of through disciplined execution.

We corrected course. We assumed the answer was simply a bigger version of the same discipline. Instead of 8 to 12 new Implementers each quarter, we targeted roughly 20 to 28. We even pulled back on our recruiting efforts to stay within that range.

I thought we’d solved the problem.

The discipline was back.

So where was the growth?

That’s when I realized the goal no longer fit the business we’d become.

The 20-Mile March wasn’t the problem. The metric was.

A fixed quarterly target made perfect sense when EOS Worldwide was a much smaller organization. But as we grew, the math changed. Once you have 600 or 700 Implementers, adding 20 to 28 each quarter no longer produces the same result. After accounting for normal attrition, you’re essentially standing still.

Without realizing it, we were violating one of our Core Values: Grow or Die.

Today, we still believe in disciplined, consistent growth—but instead of measuring gross additions, we measure net-new Implementers, accounting for normal attrition along the way.

Our retention rate is around 95%, and I’m proud of that. It means EOS Implementers are building practices that give them what they want from life and from their business. At the same time, if EOS Worldwide is going to keep growing, our march has to be tied to a metric that grows with us.

Since then, I’ve found myself wondering how often this happens in other businesses.

We create a goal. It works. We become disciplined about executing it. Then one day, without realizing it, the business changes, but we’re still measuring success the same way.

How many goals quietly outlive the reason they were created?

What are you still measuring because it worked years ago?

Has your business quietly outgrown it?