Written by Eva Benmeleh, Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Dr. Eva Benmeleh focuses on the multifaceted impact of perfectionism on individuals and their relationships. She is a clinical psychologist in private practice, an educator on maternal mental health and perfectionism, and the author of the book Sun and Moon Love Cloud: A Book about Divorce.
Scaling a business is an incredible achievement, but at what cost? Many leaders find that growth comes with hidden sacrifices: health, relationships, and personal well-being. The drive for success requires relentless dedication, perseverance, and vision, but it doesn’t have to mean losing yourself in the process. The visionary must have a certain level of mature commitment to the bigger picture for growth to be steady and lucrative.
When a leader decides to scale their business, there is an inevitable gap between the present moment and its challenges, with the unforeseen road leading to the desired successful outcome. If not done carefully, the pressure to scale, increase revenue, and stay ahead can lead to overworking, burnout, and loss of authenticity. The real challenge isn’t scaling, it’s not losing yourself in the process and remembering why you started this endeavor in the first place.
Perfectionism and scaling are often at odds with one another. Perfectionism desires certainty, a plan of action, organization, and reduced margins of error. It feeds off guilt and people-pleasing, keeping up with the status quo and not letting anyone down. While perfectionism thrives on control and certainty, scaling requires stepping into the unknown, demanding a level of flexibility and trust that perfectionists often struggle with. It tests your capacity to realize your creativity’s maximum dreams and aspirations.
Scaling can get personal when your identity is wrapped up in your career, and when you see it as a test of your vivacity, apprenticeship, capacity to lead and hold onto greater gains, and access to the opportunities these gains allow. It demands stronger boundaries around time management, energy expenditure, finances, and team dynamics to ensure sustainable growth.
If perfectionism isn’t handled during this process, feelings of guilt will derail any effort to succeed, surreptitiously, through energy or financial leaks, frequent illnesses, missed deadlines, or common mistakes. When perfectionism-driven self-sabotage takes hold, the founder’s vision can get lost in the relentless noise of an ever-competitive market. This can lead to a disconnect in goals, purpose, and business ideals. The pressure to complete tasks on time can lead to burnout and decision fatigue, impairing judgment, lowering the quality and quantity of creative spurts, and causing exhaustion.
These alone can lead to illness, ill-aligned hires, a drop in sales, losing stamina, and existential crises related to overall purpose in life. Perfectionists’ relentless drive for success can create a hyper-focus on business growth, neglecting personal relationships, self-care, and hobbies. If ignored for too long, another slew of issues will pile onto the already stressful environment of scaling.
Many perfectionists who are scaling their businesses resist delegating responsibilities, fearing that any time used in research or shifting roles is wasted time that could be used for higher-order work. This creates an incessant loop of micromanaging, devaluing important steps that lead to greater flow and productivity.
Sustainable success isn’t just about expansion, it’s about aligning business growth with personal evolution. CEOs who successfully scale without losing their sense of self focus on the following: remembering the deeper why behind the business. Visionaries who have confronted their ego have asked themselves,
“Why does it have to be me? What do I bring to this table? What makes my company unique?”
These individuals are better able to remember their need to contribute to society through this chosen work. They learn to build a team that supports sustainable growth because they value their vision.
They have done the inner work to understand that their high-level vision and innovation require intention, emotional intelligence, healthy self-awareness, and consistent self-care to carry through their business purpose.
As a business scales, the founder must redefine balance and forgo perfectionism’s black or white absolute thinking. Personal fulfillment is integrated into professional success, and vice versa. The connection and complement of both are much different from the compartmentalizing that existed before scaling.
The founder is aware that scaling a business is ever-evolving and, just like inner work, never ends but becomes more fruitful and disciplined with experience.
Perfectionists’ guide to scaling your business
Listen to yourself
Listen to your complaints and your aspirations in your current line of work. What would your business look like if all of your complaints disappeared? What would it look like if all you dreamed of took shape in reality? What does success look and feel like to you on a personal and professional level? Can you say it out loud without feeling ashamed?
Once you answer these questions, ask yourself honestly
Can you figure out how to make these changes for your business on your own, or would it be easier, faster, or more effective if you hired a guide? Usually, the answer is yes to hiring support, because if you could have done it on your own, you probably would have by now.
Hiring someone to guide, coach, support, or mentor you is difficult
If you are not connected to your why. Why do you want to scale? Why do you want to change your current business model? Getting clarity around this question will align you faster with a guide who can help you create the new from the old.
Assess your current leadership skills
Ask yourself, am I still doing tasks that no longer align with my highest-value contribution? Can I redefine my role and begin to delegate to others? Am I reliable, consistent, productive, communicative, and resourceful? Can I hire a team to mirror my strengths as well?
Scaling can send perfectionism into overdrive
Juggling multiple projects, taking on new challenges, and managing unexpected setbacks, all while balancing regular life events. If we aren’t careful, scaling can have a nosedive effect on mental health, personal relationships, and other passions. We may delude ourselves into thinking that everything and everyone can wait until this one project is over, but the reality is that time goes on with or without you. Perfectionism’s oldest adage, "you are as good as your highest level of accomplishment," can rear its ugly nose in here, and you better bet that all of the inner work you’ve done to tame that beast is here to remind you that your worth is not tied to business metrics.
How flexible can you get without compromising your authenticity?
Reinvention is part of scaling, but it is not swapping one mask for another. It is based on an expansion of who you truly are.
Scaling should be a process that enriches your life, not drains it. A truly successful CEO builds a company that evolves with them, not one that traps them in an unsustainable cycle of overwork and self-sacrifice. Growth is not just about doing more – it’s about becoming more. If there is ever the potential testament to your ability to manage perfectionism, it is when you decide to and embark on the journey of scaling your business to match your dreams, with tenacity, grace, and discipline.
The last question is: Are you scaling your business in a way that also scales your joy, purpose, and personal fulfillment? If not, it may be time to redefine what success truly means for you.
Read more from Eva Benmeleh
Eva Benmeleh, Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Dr. Eva Benmeleh focuses on the multifaceted impact of perfectionism on individuals and their relationships. She is a clinical psychologist in private practice, an educator on maternal mental health and perfectionism, and the author of the book Sun and Moon Love Cloud: A Book about Divorce. She is committed to unraveling the polarities in perfectionism, integrating the striving for personal growth with harmonious flow. She is committed to working with individuals open to compassionate yet astute feedback, expanding their awareness, and making profound changes to the quality of their lives.
