I think we can all agree that “quality” is more important than “quantity”. That less is more. Time is scarce, and that it makes most sense to spend our valuable time on work that inspires and excites us.
I’m going to disagree. Sort of.
I think that quantity is incredibly important. Quantity is what builds quality. Quantity is what helps fine-tune our skills. Saying yes to (maybe) more than we should teaches how to say “no”. It fine-tunes our approach. It establishes a niche.
Quantity helps us to discover what we’re best at, and maybe more importantly, what’s better left to someone else.
Since my company, Proof opened its doors in late 2010, we’ve worked with over 125 clients. You may be thinking, “Holy cow, how could you handle that much?!” – Well, there’s no question it’s been challenging. But it’s also been an incredibly rewarding learning experience and has been invaluable to the success of our business.
We’ve learned what we’re best at. We’ve improved our approach and techniques. We’ve established processes and workflows that allow us to work more efficiently and effectively. Our team has grown as we take on new and exciting projects. And to-date, 100% of our business has been word of mouth or referral based – which proves that doing good work pays dividends – and for a young company, getting your name out there is without a doubt one of the biggest challenges.
It’s because we’ve said “yes”, not to everything, certainly, but to maybe more than we’d like, that we’ve arrived where we are today. It’s what shifted my mindset from one of thinking of entrepreneurship as a temporary bridge to a great nine to five, to embracing this is my lifestyle and my future.
Quality matters. But so does quantity. If you close the door to opportunities simply because it doesn’t meet your standard of quality, you may be missing out on an amazing opportunity. An opportunity to learn. An opportunity to grow. An opportunity to try new things.
Because more CAN be better.