Business success inevitably leads to bigger challenges.

The higher you climb, the more problems you’ll face, the more complex they’ll be, and the more skill you’ll need to solve them.

You’ll need to know how to solve the meta-problem—the problem behind the problems.

Here’s an example of the meta-problem…

Let’s say you love to cook. Preparing a simple meal at home is pretty straightforward. There’s a relatively small number of problems you need to focus on—which recipes to follow, what ingredients to use, serving sizes to measure by.

By comparison, preparing a meal for 100 people in a busy restaurant is far more complicated. You couldn’t just wing it like when cooking at home. To deliver the best solutions (delicious meals), you’d need a clear process for keeping up with all the variables, moving parts, and inevitable spills.

In other words, you’d need a process for solving the meta-problem that comes with scale.

The same logic applies to building a company.

If you approach the problems of a 50-person business the same way you approached them as a 5-person business, you’re going to end up overwhelmed, scattered, and spread too thin—struggling to stay on top of everything as problems keep stacking up.

To solve the meta-problem, you need a clear process that:

• Guides your decisions about what problems to focus on first.
• Prioritizes your time and energy based on which challenges are having the biggest impact.
• Helps you pull back, get perspective, and keep your eye on the big picture (your vision).
• Keeps you from defaulting to “urgent but not important” problems.

What will you do today to start addressing the meta-problem—the problem behind the problems?

Will you start designing a process that helps you keep up with your company’s own unique variables, moving parts, and inevitable “spills”?