Newton's Law... For Revenue Teams?
Insights and stories on leadership, sales, and performance from someone who’s been in the trenches.
What is Newton's Third Law in business?
Newton’s Third Law states “For every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction.” In business, this means nothing happens in isolation—every decision creates ripple effects throughout your entire organization. When you change one element in your business ecosystem (like removing a key process or person), everything else is affected. Most founders think like mechanics, breaking their business into compartmentalized parts, but elite leaders think in systems and understand organizational physics.
Why do small changes have big impacts in business?
Small changes have big impacts because your business is an ecosystem where every part affects every other part. One line of copy in a sales funnel can change the economics of the entire funnel. Consistent emails may not produce many sales directly, but removing them causes sales to drop dramatically. Long-form content like YouTube may not directly produce sales, but customers watch videos before clicking ads. When you optimize one part without considering the whole system, you create unintended consequences elsewhere.
How do you optimize business systems holistically?
Optimize business systems holistically by understanding that every part of your business affects every other part. Before optimizing one metric (like click-through rates or conversion rates), consider: How does this impact the entire customer journey? What second and third-order effects will this create? Does this align with our overall business goals? Elite leaders don’t optimize isolated metrics—they optimize the entire ecosystem. Think of your business as interconnected, not compartmentalized.
What is the Yellowstone wolf example in business?
The Yellowstone wolf example shows how removing one element from an ecosystem causes everything to collapse. When predator control programs removed wolves, elk overpopulated, stripped vegetation, rivers eroded and changed course. One “small” change created massive consequences. In business, removing one element (like consistent email nurture or a key team member) can cause similar cascading failures. Your business works the same way—nothing happens in isolation.
Mitchell Miles
Dec 19, 2025 • 4 min read
They break their business down into compartmentalized parts.
This is normal and partially correct.
However, there are laws within nature that carry over to business as well.
Remember this…
Nothing in the universe (not even your business / team) happens in isolation.
Newton’s Third Law: For every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction.
This is physics, in this case I want you to think of it as “Organizational Physics”.
When governmental predator control programs removed wolves from Yellowstone, they thought they were solving a significant problem.
“Wolves are killing too many prey, so let’s remove them”…
Sounds nice in theory right?
Well… the elk overpopulated.
Even stripped the vegetation, rivers eroded and changed course.
You remove one single element from an ecosystem and everything collapses.
One “small” change.
Massive consequences.
Remember… your business works the same way.
Nothing happens in isolation.
It’s very tempting to look at things with a fine tooth comb, in isolation. While this line of thinking is not inherently bad…
We also need to consistently use a different perspective and also consider it through the lens of all parts being interconnected.
Because they are.
For example…
One line of copy in a sales funnel can change the economics of an entire funnel.
Consistent emails to your list may not produce a LOT of sales, but if you remove them entirely sales go dramatically decrease.
Long form content such as Youtube or a Podcast may not directly produce a lot sales, but many customer will search for you, watch one video, and then later click your ad.
Your “Top of the funnel” ad can actually impact customer satisfaction by skewing expectations (I’ve seen this before).
One bad team member can ruin an entire department by killing the culture with negativity (many studies on this).
Every part of your business affects every other part.
You can’t optimize one without considering every part of the system in it’s entirety.
But most entrepreneurs obsess over isolated metrics:
Click through rates
Open rates
Conversion rates
Cost per lead
Here’s how I recommend thinking about optimization, holistically.
The right way…
Your business is an ecosystem.
Every part affects every other part.
The founders and CROs who understand this create 10x improvements.
Stay steady,
Till next time,
– The Miles Memo
-Mitchell Miles – CEO
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