Turning Down Revenue: The Counterintuitive Path to Sustainable Growth

How a Former Division I Golfer Built a Seven-Figure Tech Empire by Saying No

Every startup founder dreams of the moment when demand exceeds capacity, when clients are lining up, revenue is flowing, and scaling seems like the obvious next move. But Pablo Gerboles Parrilla did something most entrepreneurs would consider unthinkable: he turned them away.

"At one point we were getting a huge number of new client applications, and I felt overwhelmed," recalls Gerboles Parrilla, founder of Pabs Tech Solutions and multiple other ventures. "I could have accepted everyone and outsourced the work, taking commissions. But I wasn't confident others would deliver the same quality and attention I provide."

What happened next defies conventional startup wisdom and it's a lesson in sustainable growth that more founders need to hear.

The Athlete's Discipline Applied to Business Strategy

Gerboles Parrilla's path to entrepreneurship wasn't typical. As a Division I golfer, he learned that consistency trumps intensity every time. "In golf, you're playing a long game — every decision matters, and the smallest mistakes can compound," he explains. "Startups are the same. It's not about one great shot or one big win; it's about showing up, making calculated moves, and adapting when conditions change."

That athletic discipline shaped an unconventional business philosophy: stay small long enough to become big enough. While competitors were hiring aggressively and chasing every opportunity, Gerboles Parrilla made a calculated decision to protect something more valuable than short-term revenue— his reputation.

"If even one client had a bad experience, it could damage my reputation," he notes. "So I intentionally slowed down and focused only on the clients we already had. I avoided hiring aggressively because I didn't feel experienced enough yet."

Why "Stay Small" Beats "Move Fast and Break Things"

The conventional Silicon Valley mantra of rapid scaling has created a graveyard of startups that grew too fast. Gerboles Parrilla witnessed this pattern firsthand across multiple industries, particularly in B2C businesses where poor customer experience can destroy a brand overnight.

His alternative approach centers on building robust foundations before attempting scale: strong team culture, proven systems, sustainable processes, and most importantly, the internal maturity to support growth when it arrives.

"Too many businesses grow too fast without the internal maturity to support that growth," he observes. This philosophy isn't about fear of growth, it's about strategic timing. By staying small during critical development phases, companies can establish the quality standards and operational excellence that make sustainable scaling possible.

Peace as Competitive Advantage

Perhaps the most counterintuitive element of Gerboles Parrilla's approach involves his emphasis on meditation and inner calm as business strategy. This isn't abstract philosophy, it's a practical decision-making framework that proved invaluable during market turbulence.

During a major cryptocurrency market crash, Gerboles Parrilla watched peers panic and sell at the bottom. "Everyone was talking about selling, cutting losses, and 'getting out before it goes to zero,'" he recalls. "The difference is that I already had a plan. I had decided from the beginning that my Bitcoin investment was long-term."

His response? Complete calm. "If the plan was made in peace, you don't change it in panic." Two years later, Bitcoin increased fivefold and hit new all-time highs. Those who maintained composure captured the entire upside.

This principle extends beyond investing. Gerboles Parrilla practices multiple forms of meditation—morning pineal gland meditation to start his day, 15-minute gratitude sessions when stress emerges, and longer weekend sessions including breathwork. "Many of the business ideas I've developed actually came from that state—not from forcing, but from receiving," he notes.

The Multi-Project Framework That Defies Convention

Another area where Gerboles Parrilla diverges from standard advice: his approach to focus. While most business gurus preach obsessive single-project focus, he runs multiple ventures simultaneously, and argues this actually increases resilience.

"Most people say you should focus on one project at a time. I disagree," he states. "If you're naturally creative and full of ideas, working on multiple things can actually keep your momentum alive. If you focus on just one and it fails, you have to start from zero. But if you have three and one fails, the other two keep you moving."

This philosophy emerged from painful experience. In 2018, Gerboles Parrilla lost $300,000 on a failed crypto venture. What saved him? He had simultaneously been building a development services business that survived the failure and eventually became his primary operation, later expanding into additional companies.

"That would not have happened if I had focused on only one thing," he reflects. The key distinction: these aren't disconnected side projects, but complementary ventures that share infrastructure, knowledge, and strategic synergies.

Implementing the Sustainable Growth Framework

For founders considering this approach, Gerboles Parrilla emphasizes several practical elements:

First, quality over velocity. Resist the pressure to scale before systems can sustain it. "We have never failed or delivered late on a single project," he notes, a track record only possible through disciplined capacity management.

Second, strategic infrastructure. Don't just think about product-market fit; consider legal structure, tax optimization, talent geography, and operational design from day one. "We help founders build entire ecosystems around their ideas," he explains of his approach at Pabs Marketing.

Third, decision-making from peace. Develop practices that maintain mental clarity under pressure. Whether meditation, physical training, or other grounding rituals, founders need consistent methods to access calm strategic thinking when chaos surrounds them.

Fourth, intentional portfolio thinking. If pursuing multiple ventures, ensure they're complementary and strategically connected rather than purely opportunistic distractions.

The Long Game Paradox

Perhaps the greatest paradox in Gerboles Parrilla's journey: by deliberately slowing down in moments others would accelerate, he ultimately moved faster. By protecting quality when others chased quantity, he built more sustainable value. By staying small when scaling beckoned, he created stronger foundations for eventual growth.

"Staying small protected the quality of my work and my reputation, and when the right moment came, I scaled safely," he concludes.

In an entrepreneurial culture obsessed with hockey-stick growth charts and unicorn valuations, this approach feels almost radical. Yet the mathematics are undeniable: sustainable growth compounds longer than explosive growth that collapses. Quality reputation opens more doors than quantity of mediocre projects. And founders who maintain their judgment through chaos consistently outperform those who lose it in panic.

The ultimate lesson? Sometimes the fastest path to lasting success runs through counterintuitive choices that conventional wisdom would reject. For founders willing to question the standard playbook, there's a significant competitive advantage in the patience to stay small long enough to truly become big.