21 Misconceptions About Owning a Successful Company
It’s hard to know what works well, until you do it yourself.
Business founders and owners may start off with one idea of how building a company works. And then they realized it wasn’t quite what they thought. Maybe they got to a certain point and learned that what got you here won’t get you there. Or they focused too hard on the wrong product features, the wrong target market, or the wrong type of growth. Lessons differ depending on the leader, but there are common insights.
Below, Fast Company Executive Board members share misconceptions they’ve encountered, and what to know instead, as they have grown and scaled their businesses—lessons transferable to almost every industry.
1. It’s Experience, Not Just Products
Many leaders believe having great products or services is enough to be successful. But the experience surrounding your offering often matters more than the product itself. I’ve seen incredible brands struggle because they overlooked the in-store journey and customer touchpoints. Creating memorable, sensory-rich experiences that connect emotionally can greatly determine a brand’s overall success.
–Jaime Bettencourt, Mood Media
2. Disciplined Leadership and Execution Matter
A common misconception is that success comes from perfect planning, ample capital, or a healthy organizational culture. In truth, thriving companies succeed by adapting quickly to change, grounding financial decisions in governance and values, and realizing that none of these factors matter without disciplined leadership and execution.
3. Daily Urgency and Accountability
Too often, leaders think urgency and accountability are for emergencies. They’re the job. The best leaders make them daily standards: Set a clear bar, trust people to move fast and act boldly, and model it relentlessly. When urgency is constant and ownership is universal, you don’t hope to win, you expect it.
4. Recovery From Mistakes
Many leaders think failure defines them. In reality, every successful company has setbacks. Owning mistakes doesn’t make you a failure. But how you recover does. Resilience, learning, and adapting are what sustain success, not avoiding missteps.
5. Culture and Purpose More Than Strategy
A common misconception is that running a successful company is only about structure or strategy. Leaders often underestimate how culture, trust, and shared values drive long-term prosperity. Even the best systems fall short without teams aligned by purpose and empowered to do their best work—true success balances strategy with a culture that inspires passion, collaboration, and accountability.
6. Forget Quick Growth
There’s a common belief that scaling quickly is synonymous with success. But sustainable growth, aligned with culture, capacity, and client fit, is far more valuable. I’ve seen companies chase growth at the expense of their brand integrity, team morale, and long-term viability.
7. Solve Problems as They Arise
The biggest misconception is that successful leaders must have all the answers from the start. Too many leaders think they need unwavering certainty and rigid five-year plans. The best companies are built by leaders who listen to feedback, learn from setbacks, and pivot when necessary. Confidence comes from trusting you can solve problems as they arise, not from pretending you have a perfect plan.
8. Leadership Is Not a Dictatorship
The biggest misconception business leaders have about running a successful company is that they’re in control. Too many approach leadership as dictating—believing they’re being helpful when, in fact, they’re shutting down ideas. Real growth happens when leaders let go of control, creating space for their people to contribute, expand, and thrive.
9. Stick to the Vision
When business leaders face new industry challenges, they may feel they need to overhaul their goals or prioritize lesser areas of focus to stay ahead and manage the disruption. In reality, the most successful leaders are those who stick to their overall vision and plan ahead to ensure their business model is agile enough to adapt without losing sight of their goals.
–Eddy Azad, Parsec Automation Corp.
10. Take Chances
Too many business leaders think they can run a successful company by just going with the flow and continuing to do what they’ve always done. But winning in business hinges on taking chances. Run as many fast, cheap, and weird experiments as possible to disrupt the status quo, avoid stagnation, and shake up ideas and industries. True innovation is a risk, but it’s one worth taking.
–Elliott Parker, Alloy Partners
11. Surround Yourself With Good Partners
You cannot do it alone. In fact, the people you surround yourself with will help you fortify or build a successful company. Conversely, people can slow or obfuscate sustainable growth. Do not underestimate how much of your role will be managing, engaging, and growing relationships with colleagues, partners, and customers. You must love managing interpersonal relationships, if you want to succeed.
–Mack McKelvey, SalientMG and The Credentialed
12. Tech Alone Isn’t Enough
The single biggest misconception business leaders have is that your technology is their solution. No business will adopt new technology without a real catalyst—be it cost, competition, or urgent need. Tech alone isn’t enough; people rarely switch if what they have works. Innovation wins only when the market feels the same pain you do. Leadership means understanding what will actually drive change.
13. Organizations Evolve
The biggest misconception is thinking projects have clear endpoints. When you partner with other organizations for a project—say, implementing new technology—understand that it will likely grow and change beyond what you initially imagined. Your organization is a living, evolving thing. Plan for evolution rather than trying to lock everything down from day one.
14. Success Means Growing Sustainably
Many assume that growth alone defines lasting business success. In reality, sustainable success depends on how well you build systems that scale, support your team, and protect your time and energy. Without that foundation, rapid growth often leads to chaos. A company is not successful just because it is growing. It is successful when it can grow consistently without breaking.
–Muhammed Uzum, Grape Law Firm PLLC
15. Past Does Not Equal Future Success
The biggest misconception is that past success guarantees future results. Leaders often cling to strategies, systems, and mindsets that worked before, but growth demands evolution. What built a $1 million company won’t scale to $10 million. Success requires constantly questioning assumptions, embracing new approaches, and recognizing that adaptability—not consistency—drives sustainable growth.
–Kathleen Lucente, Red Fan Communications
16. Success Is About People
The biggest misconception is thinking success is about capital or products. It’s really about people. Motivation isn’t “soft”—it’s the hard edge of performance. A janitor at NASA, when asked by JFK what he was doing, replied: “I’m helping put a man on the moon.” Purpose drives results, not spreadsheets.
17. Start Succession Planning Early
Many leaders assume succession planning is only a long-term concern for their future self. In reality, starting early forces you to define team roles, and plan for the leadership development of all employees. Those decisions strengthen operations now, building future readiness while encouraging forward-thinking in the short term.
18. Build Relationships
Too many old-school leaders still believe that there is power in hierarchy. The real power lies in understanding how the networks within their organizations work, building authentic relationships and trust within those networks, so the influencers within the networks are on their side as they advance their agendas.
–Amy Radin, Pragmatic Innovation Partners LLC
19. Scaling a Broken System Magnifies Problems
A common misconception is that fast growth will fix everything. Leaders think revenue will cover weak margins, but scaling a broken system magnifies problems. We often see this with companies using aggressive pricing to chase volume, assuming prices can be raised later. That is risky since lowering prices is easy but raising them after shaping customer value is much harder.
–Avy Punwasee, Revenue Management Labs
