Watch a rocket blast off and its progress appears slow and onerous, as gravity exerts its relentless pull, seemingly determined to return the object back to Earth’s surface. But as the rocket’s explosive thrust gradually pushes the spacecraft to higher altitudes, gravity’s force is weakened. With time and distance, a remarkable thing is achieved: The rocket begins to truly gain momentum, having achieved something physicists call “escape velocity.” Suddenly, the spaceship that looked barely able to leave the launchpad begins gaining speed and altitude at a furious rate, eventually reaching speeds upward of 17,000 miles per hour in the thinning atmosphere.

It’s a concept that Kurt Miscinski, founder and CEO of Cerity Partners, has personally experienced, albeit in a business rather than gravitational sense. All firms, like rockets, begin from a standing start and early progress seems impossibly slow. But, in business, mass often begets more mass, and the firm itself