Are You Fixing the Right Problem? A Startup Scaling Lesson From a Runaway Tire

My husband and I have recently embarked on full-time RV'ing. We live and work from the road and have covered over 7,000 miles since October. It has been one of the best decisions we've ever made.

It has also taught me more about startup scaling than a decade of strategy sessions.

Here's the story.

The Wheel That Overtook Us

The very first time we drove our RV we noticed something alarming. The wheels were smoking and we smelled burned rubber. Not exactly the confidence boost you want when hauling your home down the highway.

My husband is mechanically skilled, so he pulled off every wheel, regreased the bearings, and tightened everything up. Problem solved.

Or so we thought.

On our next trip we hit a pothole and in an instant two wheel studs snapped. One of our tires went flying past us down the highway at 60 miles per hour. Our own wheel literally overtook us.

Nobody was hurt. But watching your tire speed ahead of you is not an experience I'd recommend.

What went wrong? We had done the maintenance. We thought everything was set. But we had over-tightened the bearings. The fix created a new failure point that didn't show up until we hit an unexpected bump.

Startups do this constantly.

The Three Stages Most Scaling Businesses Go Through

Stage 1: Greasing the wheels

You've identified friction somewhere in your business. Sales cycles too long. Marketing not converting. Customer journey unclear. So you start making adjustments. You refine your messaging, tighten your process, optimize your conversion paths. This is the right move. You're being proactive.

Stage 2: Over-tightening the bearings

Here's where it gets dangerous. In an effort to prevent failure, businesses overcorrect. They slow down decision-making. They add approval layers. They become so focused on getting the process right that they stop moving. Just like overtightening wheel bearings, this creates stress fractures that don't show up until you hit real road conditions.

Stage 3: Losing the tire

If you're too focused on internal mechanics without watching the bigger picture, customer needs, shifting market conditions, competitive moves, you risk a full breakdown. In startup terms this looks like losing a major client, discovering your strategy doesn't work in the real market, or having a critical team member walk out the door.

How to Keep Your Business Rolling

Watch for heat before it becomes a fire. If things feel like they're burning up (friction in customer interactions, declining engagement, a sales plateau) don't ignore the early signals. Small adjustments now prevent catastrophic failures later.

Don't let process become the enemy of momentum. Structure is necessary. But too many layers, too many approvals, too many meetings about the strategy instead of executing the strategy will slow you down until you stop. If you're waiting too long to launch, you might be creating your own failure point.

Build for potholes, not just smooth roads. The market will surprise you. How resilient is your commercial strategy right now? Are you dependent on one customer, one channel, or one person? Build in buffers before you need them.

When you lose a tire, regroup and keep going. Losing a deal, a campaign, or a client is not failure. It's data. Find the repair shop, fix what broke, and get back on the road. We had to stop, source new wheel studs, and continue our trip. We're still rolling. Your business should be too.

The Real Lesson

Momentum is everything in a scaling business. Let small issues stack up and you'll eventually break down. Be too cautious and you'll never pick up speed.

The founders who scale successfully aren't the ones who never hit potholes. They're the ones who built something resilient enough to handle them and who knew the difference between maintaining the machine and accidentally breaking it.

Need help figuring out which one you're doing? Let's talk. Preferably before your business wheel goes flying past you on the highway.