#growth-trap

#growth-trap

Social anxiety and depression had other plans, leaving me in an ugly cycle of self-isolation and rumination. Terrified of rejection, I'd meet someone interesting during one of my English lectures and invite them out for frozen yogurt in my head.

According to the Registered Agents Inc. December Business Formation Report, more than 5.9 million new businesses were formed in 2025, an 8% increase over 2024 nationwide. And sure, it's easy to point to the usual heavy hitters, states like Florida and Texas, which posted another standout year and outperformed 2024 month after month.

In places where inclusion is part of the infrastructure of their economy-supply chains, procurement processes, capital access, or business ownership-people thrive. Inclusive economies create more resilience by expanding the base of potential business owners who can build, own, innovate, and hire. They allow more opportunities for homeownership and investing in the longevity of communities. As our economy becomes increasingly stratified and volatile, we need as much resiliency as we can get.

Perks have vanished, in-office mandates are on the rise, and layoffs continue even as profits hold up - changes that reflect a system that prioritizes shareholder returns over stakeholder capitalism and corporate loyalty. With job openings thinning, wages struggling to keep pace with inflation, and AI looming as a threat to entire occupations, the recalibration is altering how advancement and compensation are determined inside companies.

Putting yourself out there is difficult. Rejection is tough. And feeling like you've gotten the rug pulled out from under you is the worst. When you're in charge of business development, where you're responsible for growing your revenue within your current client portfolio as well as seeking out new potential opportunities, you can easily vacillate from feeling like a hero to feeling like a zero, depending on what kind of results you're getting from your efforts.

But if you're innovating within your industry, it's a problem you should expect and prepare for because it means having to operate in two realities-the internal reality where you know the challenges in your industry and how you're going to solve them, and the external reality where nobody else has recognized the problem that needs to be solved. In a highly regulated industry like healthcare, safety, and stability create an inertia that often works against innovation.

From the outside, many entrepreneurs appear to be thriving. The business is stable or growing. Experience has replaced early uncertainty. Decisions are sharper than they used to be. By most traditional measures, things are working. Yet internally, something feels off. Energy feels flatter. Wins don't land the way they once did. The work feels heavier, even when results are strong.