Is your growth real, or are you just feeding the "Gluttony" of Circle 3?

We all want the "hockey stick" graph. But after studying hundreds of failure patterns for my book Startup Inferno, I’ve noticed a dangerous trend: many founders mistake "Gluttony" for "Growth."

Scaling an inefficient machine isn't growth, it's just a faster way to reach the bottom of the Inferno.

Here are 3 Growth Traps to avoid if you want to stay out of the pit:

The Vanity Metric Gluttony (Circle 3): Flooding your landing page with low-intent traffic to see the numbers go up, while your unit economics stay deep in the red.

The Fraud of "Growth Hacking" (Circle 8): Using deceptive UI or "dark patterns" to trick users into subscribing. It works for a month, then the "Treachery" of churn kills your reputation.

The Violence of Premature Scaling (Circle 7): Forcing growth before you have product-market fit. You’re not building a business; you’re just committing violence against your runway and your team’s mental health.

True growth is a marathon through the heat. It’s about building a sustainable path that doesn't burn you, or your users, alive.

I’m curious to hear from the experts here: What’s the most "toxic" growth tactic you’ve seen lately?

I'm sharing the full map to sustainable scaling here: dub.sh/MfnhapC

#GrowthMarketing #growthBusiness #IndieHackers #StartUpInferno