Business

3 Things Winning Businesses Do Differently

"To have an above-average life, you must become an above-average person. To become an above-average person, you must do above-average things, spend time with above-average people, and set above-average goals."-Jim Rohn

The small details that people ignore are what matter most. An above-average handshake and a genuine smile build social intelligence.

I started thinking: what if we applied this same philosophy to business?

Business is a competition for finite resources: money, talent, customers, market share, and investors. When everyone's competing at the same level, resources get distributed evenly.

The big wins go to those who operate beyond average, the ones doing business in a way that sets them apart.

So how do you build a business that goes beyond average? Three things matter most.

Ultimate Team

Over the past years, I've worked with growth-oriented individuals who push me to the limits with high expectations. This challenges me to improve. The difference between working with average people versus exceptional ones is night and day.

So, look at your team. Are they working beyond average? In other words, how does their level of skill compare to the market? Do they possess unique philosophies? Do their personalities promote ambitions? Having special talents is the main ingredient for being an exceptional company. Even so, having extraordinary individuals is not enough, they must work together uniquely. Talent wins games, but teamwork wins championships.

However, you can't force your team to become an ultimate team if its members aren't built for that. Such teams form organically.

Greatness can't be taught, but it can be influenced.
One simple approach I use as CTO is to let new members work closely with others who possess the skills they want to develop.

I once had an engineer who wanted to get better at system design. I advised him to pair with a key team member who is a master in designing systems. I didn't instruct anyone to teach anyone. I just let teamwork do its thing. Months later, we had another expert engineer in system design on the team.

Nonetheless, you might not have the ultimate team from day zero. You'll mostly build it over time, but keep the bar high from the start. In fact, this is a great recruitment filter. Those who can't keep up will leave.

Impossible Goals

For an ultimate team to work effectively, they need to have ambitious goals, the kind of goals that no one thinks are achievable, setting the expectations as high as they can get. A world-class team deserves world-class targets.

Whereas, if you set easy objectives, your team wouldn't find them challenging enough. They might even lose interest in your vision. Hence, you lose that edge you once had. Also, your competitors can easily beat you, allowing them to achieve high targets when you are focusing on the lower ones. That's why our goals should scare us a little.

Here's what my team figured out about me: I don't do easy. Easy bores me. Impossible excites me. The harder the problem, the more focused I get. The formula is simple: challenging goals = high motivation = high results. And most people are wired the same way, they just haven't been given goals worth caring about.

A year ago at techrar, we set a goal to build an e-commerce product that competes with Shopify. Everyone said, "You'll need years to get close to that level."

They were right! We didn't achieve it. But that wasn't the point.

That impossible target forced us to build infrastructure our competitors didn't think they needed. It opened doors we didn't even know existed. The goal itself made us better, whether we hit it or not.

That's what most people miss: the right goal transforms your team just by chasing it. You don't set impossible goals to achieve them, you set them to become the kind of team that could.

Speed as Strategy

In March 2023, we hit a wall at techrar. We'd built a marketplace for meal subscriptions, but our clients (restaurants and cloud kitchens) saw us as a competitor, not an enabler. They wanted our technology but under their own brand.

Most companies would spend months analyzing, planning, and building the perfect solution. We had a different approach: move fast, learn faster.

We decided to pivot on March 1st. By the end of that month, we'd launched our SaaS platform and migrated our first client. Less than 30 days from decision to live customer.

How? We embraced the MVP mindset ruthlessly. The product had flaws, plenty of them. But it worked. And that's what mattered.

The result? Our GMV went from 200K SAR in an entire year to 200K in two weeks. That speed gave us a massive advantage. While competitors were still in planning meetings, we were already learning what worked and what didn't with real customers.

Speed isn't about being reckless. It's about being willing to ship something imperfect and improve it in real time. Most businesses die from overthinking, not from moving too fast.

Building an above-average business isn't complicated, but it's not common either. Most companies settle for good enough teams, achievable goals, and reasonable timelines.

The ones that win? They refuse to settle. They build teams that push each other to be better. They set goals that seem impossible. And they move faster than everyone thinks is smart.

You don't need all three from day one. But you need to be honest about where you stand. Average teams executing average goals at average speed will get average results. And in a competitive market, average means invisible.

So ask yourself: which of these three are you actually committed to? Pick one. Go beyond average on it. The rest will follow.