If you brilliantly move through all the key principles in Stages 1 through 3, you will likely create a very successful company. In Stage 4, you make your company built to last. There are three key principles in Stage 4:

• Practice productive paranoia (avoid the 5 Stages of Decline).

• Do more clock building, less time telling.

• Preserve the core/stimulate progress (achieve the next BHAG).

Part 3: Build Your Product

“They [Phillips] were focused on what they could make, not why anyone would want it.

But the second you start a new product, you have to hit the restart button—even if you’re at a big company. Sometimes it’s even harder the second time around because all the

infrastructure that’s been built up for the first product gets in the way. So you’ll still need to go through at least three generations before you get it right.

You make the product. You fix the product. You build the business.

You make the product. You fix the product. You build the business.

You make the product. You fix the product. You build the business.

Every product. Every company. Every time.

Your company is an organism; its cells need to divide to multiply, they need to differentiate to become something new. Don’t worry about what you’re going to lose—think about what you’re going to become.

By making customer happiness your top priority over new customer acquisition and then incentivizing customers to share the word about your business, less of your money needs to be spent on promotion. With a company of one, which can be profitable at any size, such slow but sustainable growth makes sense. You start with the idea of creating a trust-centric business, build products that customers love, make sure they’re educated and happy with what they’ve purchased from you, and then give them systematic ways to share their success with others.