Grow Only What You’ll Eat

Why Founders Should Stop Planting Projects They’ll Never Harvest

Author

Justin Glover
August 14, 2025

Today’s Perspective Shift

From: Saying yes to every “good” idea
To: Planting only what you’re willing to tend, harvest, and use

Theme for the Quarter: Tools With Soul
Theme for the Week: Freedom Through Filtering
(Control the input, master the outcome)

Quote of the Week:
"You are what you consume…guard your inputs like your outputs depend on them."

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✨ In Today’s Episode:

  • Why overplanting kills more than it grows

  • The hidden costs of unused projects, tools, and ideas

  • A 3-step “Garden Audit” to reclaim focus

  • How to monetize pruning for others

Grow Only What You’ll Eat

Why Founders Should Stop Planting Projects They’ll Never Harvest

🧠 ONE Smart Idea

Your attention is a finite plot of land.

Every “yes” you give plants a seed, but only some will bear fruit worth harvesting.

The problem is most founders plant far more than they’ll ever tend…leading to a garden full of withering, half-finished work that drains resources instead of feeding growth.

When you commit only to what you’ll actually nurture and use, you free up energy, capital, and focus for the things that truly matter.

It’s more than just minimalism…it’s farming for survival, not decoration.

📖 Story Spark

When I started my second company, I said yes to everything.

Partnerships.
Side products.
New marketing channels.

At one point, I was “growing” seven different revenue streams at once.

On paper, it looked ambitious.

In reality, it was a patchwork of neglected crops — nothing matured, nothing got harvested, and the weeds (urgent but unimportant tasks) took over.

The turning point came when I shut down four of them in one week.

Painful? Yes.

But in the next 90 days, the remaining three projects flourished.

Revenue doubled, quality improved, and my team stopped feeling like they were sprinting in mud.

The lesson stuck: grow less, eat more.

⚙️ Tactical Application: The 3-Step Garden Audit

Step 1 – Inventory Your Crops
List every active project, product, tool, or initiative you’re “growing.”

Step 2 – Tag Each as:

  • Harvest Soon (critical and delivering results)

  • Needs Care (worth tending, but not yet producing)

  • Weed (low ROI, no clear path to value)

Step 3 – Pull the Weeds
Cancel, sell, or shelve anything not worth harvesting in the next 6–12 months. Redirect those resources into your highest-yield “crops.”

🔦 Tool Spotlight: Trello “Garden View” Board

Use Trello (or Notion) with three columns labeled “Harvest Soon,” “Needs Care,” and “Weed.” Add each project as a card. Review monthly and prune without guilt.

🧭 Intelligent Elevation

Focus is not just about what you say yes to… it’s about the volume of no’s you’re willing to give.

In nature, over-planting leads to soil depletion.

In business, it depletes your energy, capital, and clarity.

Your competitive edge comes from concentrating your best resources where they’ll produce the richest harvest.

💸 Make Money With AI

Strategy: Offer a “Project Pruning & Focus Reset” service for founders drowning in half-finished work.

Steps:

  1. Use AI to inventory and categorize all active initiatives (scan docs, emails, and project boards).

  2. Flag low-ROI projects and create a savings/impact report.

  3. Recommend a “Core Focus Portfolio” for the next quarter.

  4. Assist in decommissioning and migrating resources.

  5. Price: $1,000–$5,000 depending on company size and complexity.

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💬 Closing Insight

Don’t plant for the sake of planting.

Plant for the sake of eating.

Sticky takeaway: Grow less. Harvest more.

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AiScaleTips is your founder clarity compass.
Most scale with chaos. You scale by design.

— Justin Glover