Yesterday I told you about the founder who was "profitable but tight."
Today I want to explain why that matters.
Because here's what I've learned after working with dozens of brands in that $1M–$30M range …
The calmest founders aren't the most disciplined. They're the ones with the best margins.
Let me explain.
When you have margin … real surplus, not just "technically profitable" … you can afford to be patient.
And patience is what protects everything …
You can let campaigns run long enough to see real signal instead of reacting to noise.
You can let customer cohorts mature before you rewrite your entire strategy.
You can hold your positioning instead of chasing every new tactic.
You can fix the cause of problems instead of just treating symptoms.
But when margin is thin?
You can't afford any of that.
Every dollar feels like the last dollar. Every decision feels urgent. Every dip feels existential.
So you start doing things that feel responsible but are actually destructive …
You discount to hit the month.
You push urgency to move product.
You add more offers to "capture everyone."
You change things constantly because you can't afford to wait and see.
None of these moves feel wrong in the moment. They feel necessary.
But here's what's actually happening … You're borrowing from the future to feel okay today.
And that borrowing has a cost.
It trains your customers to wait for discounts. It degrades trust. It creates volatility. It makes next month harder than this month.
The whole chain looks like this …
Profit creates margin → Margin creates patience → Patience protects alignment → Alignment compounds.
When you lose margin, the whole thing runs backward.
Tomorrow I'm going to show you what that looks like in practice … the specific ways founders break their own businesses when they lose patience.
Because once you see the pattern, you can't unsee it.
See you tomorrow,
Jeremiah
P.S. The goal isn't to become some zen master who never feels pressure. The goal is to build enough surplus that you can make decisions based on truth instead of fear.
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