Rest as a Growth Strategy: What High-Performers Know That Many Business Owners Don’t

As business owners, we’re taught to hustle. We’re told that constant motion equals progress, that success belongs to those who work the hardest and sleep the least. I used to believe that too—until experience taught me otherwise.

Today, after years of scaling businesses, consulting for multi-million-dollar companies, and training as an elite ultra-endurance athlete, I’ve realized something counterintuitive but undeniable: rest is not the enemy of growth. It’s the foundation of it.

Rest isn’t what you do when the work is done. Rest is the work that allows you to sustain excellence, think strategically, and scale without burning out. It’s what high performers across industries—from athletes to CEOs—understand instinctively, but what most business owners overlook. In this blog post (and in the YouTube video linked here and podcast episode linked here), I will show you why rest is your best growth strategy in your business and in your life.

How Rest Became My Competitive Advantage

In addition to leading eLearning Partners, I’m also an elite ultra runner with asthma. That might sound like an odd combination—building scalable learning systems by day and running 60+ miles by choice—but both pursuits have taught me a shared truth: growth comes in cycles, not in straight lines.

When I train for an ultra-marathon, I never run full-speed every week. Instead, I follow a rhythm: three weeks of progressive training, followed by one week of strategic rest. Those rest weeks are called “dropdowns,” and they’re when my body actually adapts, repairs, and becomes stronger.

Early in my career, I ignored that principle. I worked every day, pushed through fatigue, and told myself rest was for people who couldn’t handle the grind. The result? I hit walls—physically, mentally, and financially. I was “training” my business like an amateur athlete, always building and never recovering.

Everything changed when I started applying the same framework I use in endurance running to my business. I began building intentional rest into my work—quarterly reset weeks, daily recovery windows, time away from screens, and space for strategic reflection. My creativity exploded. My team’s productivity improved. And our company grew faster with rest than it ever did without it.

The Science of Strategic Recovery

This isn’t just mindset—it’s measurable. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that being awake for more than 17 hours impairs you as much as a blood alcohol level of 0.05 percent. In practical terms, that means many entrepreneurs are operating like they’re slightly intoxicated every day—and celebrating it as hustle.

Sleep and recovery are some of the most undervalued assets in business performance. Leaders like LeBron James, who sleeps 12 hours a day, or Tom Brady, who credits his longevity to recovery routines, aren’t just resting—they’re investing.

Modern performance science backs this up. Dr. Peter Attia, author of Outlive, emphasizes that rest and recovery directly influence cognitive function, emotional regulation, and decision-making. In other words, your sleep is your strategy. Without it, you’re making slower, less accurate, and less creative decisions—often about the very business you’re trying to scale.

If you’re a founder, CEO, or creator leading an organization through rapid growth, your rest habits are not a personal matter—they’re a business multiplier.

Why Business Owners Struggle to Rest

Most entrepreneurs fall into the “do, have, be” trap. The belief goes something like this: If I just do the work, I’ll have success, and then I’ll finally be happy and rested.

But that order never works. Because doing without being leads to burnout. It’s the reason so many business owners build companies that eventually exhaust them instead of energizing them.

The shift happens when we flip the equation: be, do, have.

When you start being the kind of person who prioritizes recovery, you do better work from a place of clarity and abundance—and you have better results. This isn’t soft talk; it’s performance optimization. When your nervous system is calm, your creativity spikes, your empathy increases, and your ability to make long-term strategic decisions improves dramatically.

Stephen R. Covey called this “sharpening the saw.” I call it leading from rest.

Rest in Practice: How I Apply It to Business Growth

Here’s how I integrate rest into both my athletic and business life:

• Daily Reset Windows: I take short breaks between deep work sessions. Five minutes of meditation or a short walk resets my focus better than an extra cup of coffee ever could.

• Weekly Downtime: I have at least one day each week that’s completely off from both business and training. It’s not optional. It’s when ideas consolidate and clarity returns.

• Quarterly Drop-Down Weeks: Just as I do in endurance training, I build one “dropdown” week every quarter for reflection, process improvement, and recovery—no big launches, no long meetings.

• Taper Before Big Initiatives: Before a major product launch or presentation, I reduce workload intentionally. That space gives me the energy and creativity to perform at my peak when it matters most.

These aren’t indulgences; they’re part of a deliberate performance system. They ensure I’m operating at full capacity during the build phases and recharging effectively during the rest phases.

When I implemented this rhythm at eLearning Partners, something remarkable happened: productivity went up, team morale improved, and our clients saw better results. Why? Because energy is contagious. When the leader operates from rest, the entire organization performs better.

What the World’s Greatest Leaders Teach Us About Rest

LeBron James isn’t the only example of rest-as-strategy. Look at history’s greatest change-makers—Jesus, for instance. No matter your beliefs, you can’t deny the global impact of his leadership. And yet, he regularly withdrew from crowds to rest, pray, and reconnect. The Sabbath itself exists as a rhythm for renewal, not restriction.

In modern times, forward-thinking executives are following suit. Companies like Basecamp and Patagonia have built rest into their culture—not as a perk, but as a competitive advantage. They’ve proven that when teams are well-rested, they innovate faster, execute better, and stay longer.

Rest doesn’t slow progress. It sustains it.

The ROI of Rest in Business

Let’s talk ROI, because that’s the language business owners understand.

Rest increases clarity, which leads to better decisions. It improves creativity, which leads to innovation. It strengthens relationships, which leads to better leadership and retention. And it restores resilience, which allows you to navigate volatility without collapsing under pressure.

You can’t scale exhaustion. You can only scale excellence—and excellence requires rest.

When we work with organizations at eLearning Partners, we help them simplify and scale their learning systems not through adding complexity, but through clarity. Rest plays a key role in that process. When leaders are rested, they can finally see where to simplify, what to delegate, and how to align their learning and development strategy with their business outcomes.

The irony is that rest is the most underutilized productivity tool in the modern business world—and it costs nothing.

The Takeaway: Rest Is a Strategy, Not a Reward

If you’re a business owner, an executive, or a creator trying to scale without losing yourself in the process, rest is your next competitive edge.

It’s not laziness. It’s leadership.

You can build a company that grows faster because you rest better. You can lead a team that performs at a high level because you model recovery. And you can build a life that expands sustainably because you no longer mistake exhaustion for effort.

At eLearning Partners, we’ve helped companies like CoStar Group grow their certification programs and save six figures annually—all while simplifying their systems and giving their teams back time. That’s the power of strategic rest at scale: it doesn’t just recharge people—it transforms organizations.

So if you’ve been grinding non-stop, chasing growth without pause, consider this your permission to stop. Reflect. Recharge. Because sometimes the most powerful way to grow your business is to give yourself the rest it deserves.