My colleague reminded me of a funny story. I had converted the cost of a pair of jeans to the number of users we could acquire, and I picked the new users option so that we could grow a couple of percent faster. At the time, I had no idea if my choice was right, but years later I became confident that the relentless focus and preference of growth over other things was instrumental to our success.

There is this concept of “opportunity costs” in economics. It means that when you choose one activity, you are giving up the opportunity to do a different option. As an entrepreneur, you will face a lot of such decisions where you'll have to prioritize growth. I will never forget my co-founder’s response when he preferred raising the salary of his teammates instead of his own.

Advice to my younger self

It is important to realize that each person has their own perspective of opportunity costs. A student may prefer hanging out with friends to a physics lecture, while an entrepreneur may prioritize company growth over a pair of jeans. Your close ones may not understand the decisions you make because they have a different set of opportunities, so spend time sharing your perspective to avoid unnecessary conflicts.

P.S $0.4 per new user - the times we had!