A big market has both a large number of potential customers and a variety of efficient channels for reaching those customers. - Reid Hoffman

Yet it is possible — indeed, necessary — to extend this personalized approach to all employees using the tour of duty framework. As the world has become less stable, you can’t just rely on a few stars at the top to provide the necessary adaptability. Companies need entrepreneurial talent throughout the organization in order to respond to rapid changes.

When you’re growing quickly, there will always be fires — inventory shortfalls, servers crashing, customers whose calls aren’t answered. You won’t always know which fire to stamp out first. And if you try to put out every fire at once, you’ll only burn yourself out. That’s why entrepreneurs have to learn to let fires burn — and sometimes even very large fires. When you have a fast-scaling company, the focus must be on moving forward. And you can’t do that if time is spent dealing with spontaneous, scattered eruptions. Fighting every fire can cause you to miss critical opportunities to build your business — you’ll be all reaction and no action.

If a market leader like Adobe gets complacent one year, it will still count billions of dollars in the bank, but if a startup gets complacent, it’s game over.