Two Ways of Building a Business — And Why I Had to Learn the Hard Way

When the vision is crystal clear, you follow the playbook. But what happens when it isn't?

There are two ways of building a business.

The first way: you start with a crystal clear vision. You know exactly what you want to build, who it's for and why it matters. You follow the playbook: define your why, know your values, execute your strategy. I did this with my first company. Finland's first responsible activewear brand. I built it for seven years and by many external measure I succeeded.

And then I burned out.

Not because I worked too hard. But because I had slowly, almost invisibly, drifted from myself. The vision that once felt like a lighthouse had become a cage. I was functioning efficiently, consistently, professionally, but I had stopped listening to the part of me that knew something was deeply wrong.

The second way is harder to explain as body-led, lived experience always is. There is no crystal clear vision at the start. There is curiosity, a pull, a direction that feels true even when you can't fully articulate it. You build slowly, uncertainly, body-first. You follow what feels alive rather than what looks correct.

This is how I have been building my second business. And for a long time I wondered if something was wrong with me.

It turns out the opposite might be true.

Research on how expert entrepreneurs actually think, as opposed to how they're told to think, tells a very different story from the playbook. Professor Saras Sarasvathy at the University of Virginia found that experienced entrepreneurs don't start with a fixed vision and map the route toward it. Instead they start with who they are, what they know, and who they know. They shape the future through action and adaptation rather than prediction and planning.

Professor Sarasvathy called this effectuation. And when I first encountered this research, I felt something release in my chest.

Because this is exactly how I have been building. Not wrong. Just different. And as it turns out, deeply right for this season of my life and this kind of work.

I wrote a longer version of this piece on Substack, including what the research says, what the body knows that the mind often overrides, and why uncertainty in business building might actually be a sign of expertise. You can read it here →

And if this resonates, if you've been building slowly, uncertainly, wondering if you're doing it wrong, I'd love to meet you live. On Wednesday 1st of April, I'm hosting a free masterclass: From Functioning to Alive. It's where this conversation goes deeper. Save your spot here →

With kindness,
Anna-Mari