On Saturday morning there's a soap stall at the market. The first time, almost everyone walks past. The second time, someone stops, smells, asks about the price. The third time, there's a conversation.

That's usually how a local initiative grows: through repetition. People have to have seen you a few times before they buy something, and you have to have spoken to someone a few times before you know what they want.

That's slow, and it's the only thing that works. A market isn't a campaign: you can't show up once and expect it to stick.

The same logic applies outside the market. A new idea rarely needs more reach. What it needs is repetition: the same place, the same time, the same person behind the stall. People have to be able to predict what they'll find. Only then do they dare to expect something from it.

Growth is the result of something being worth coming back for. Whoever scales up too early loses what made people come back: the feeling that it's about something.

The best initiatives are therefore rarely impressive. They don't promise a complete solution. They make one part of the day better, and they're small enough to try and reliable enough to keep up.