One long-standing aspect of the American culture is the belief that “bigger is better.” A humorous yet proverbial anecdote might be helpful to illustrate this point.

A young Texas belle, eager to have the finer things in life, happened upon – what she hoped – was a wealthy rancher. Although plainspoken with simple accoutrements, he was genteel nonetheless. Sensing his openness to inquiry, the gold-digger brazenly asked, “How many heads of cattle do you own?”

“None,” was his soft-spoken reply.

Disappointed, she probed further: “Acreage?”

“I own ten.”

Now thoroughly chagrined, she turned on her heels and briskly strode away. Unable to help herself, she looked back at the pathetic figure like she wished she could insert a knife and give it a twist. “Some dud you are. Where are these measly ten acres anyways?”

With a wry grin, he winked and quietly said, “Downtown Dallas,” as his driver and Bentley arrived.

The moral of the story is that bigger is not necessarily better.

Actually, I would venture to say the opposite. Rather, it is the quest for being better that begets becoming “bigger” in a healthy, sustainable way.

As one astute economist observed, “The leading cause of business failure is business success.” If you trust my principle, it’s worth greater exploration. So, what might this mean to us?

Well, on a personal level, we can accumulate a bigger house, nest egg and “toys,” but are we a better person? Are we doing the right things for our family, community and chosen faith tradition or value system?

What good is the kingdom’s expanse if the king is malevolent? What good is it if we gain the whole world and lose our soul?

The roads of life are littered with those who seemed to be successful but, in reality, were miserable, selfish and, ultimately, unenviable role models. There’s a reason people say when they take the high road in ethical matters that they “want to be the ‘bigger’ person” in the situation – they understand being better as a human being is a precursor to being a “bigger person.”

Professionally, we can enlarge our responsibilities and scope to gain a “bigger” title (sometimes by just playing the political game better than our colleagues), but are we getting better as a supervisor, employee and trusted advisor to both internal and external customers?

One of the greatest career path adages I have been told is that if you take care of today – be good at what you do now, faithfully improving yourself and that which you have been given stewardship over – your career growth will develop organically.

Focusing on doing the right things the right way, as many leadership gurus claim, eventually yields the desired professional trajectory. Mastering your current role is the surest way to prepare yourself for the next, bigger one.

Organizationally, is our overshadowing goal to grow our revenue, footprint or even profit at the expense of becoming better at what we do and letting the rest take care of itself?

Is our department obsessed with building a little empire inside of our larger corporation as opposed to maniacally pursuing the greater good?

Corporately, is getting better every day with a focus on being the best provider of a service or product paramount?

I’m convinced obsessively chasing the best possible delivery of our product or service, and being the best at it, will be the primary impetus behind getting bigger. Common sense tells us more people will want what we have if it’s discernibly better.

There’s a reason Jim Collins’ book title is Good to Great instead of Big to Bigger.

So, are we, individually and collectively, seeking to grow for growth’s sake? If so, I think we have the proverbial cart before the cow.

We all know that just because something is big doesn’t make it better, but are we living and building with the idea that if what we produce is better – a better version of ourselves, a better service or product than before, something noticeably better than our competition, etc. – growth will be the predictable byproduct?