In My Biggest Mistake In Business & How To Avoid It I looked at desperation for business. Here’s my second biggest mistake in business & how to avoid it.
It’s a simple thing but probably the most difficult one to accept and do anything about and it’s this. Recognise when something isn’t working and accept that at the earliest possible time. Having accepted it then get out. Ego and embarrassment are two expensive traits in business. Every business tries things that don’t work or don’t work well enough. The effective ones accept this and get out early. Some say fail big and fail fast. I’m not sure I entirely agree, but when you spot something that is going nowhere don’t keep backing it. Accept failure gracefully and stop. Especially don’t go down the sunk cost route Why Are Sunk Costs Important? to justify continuing.
It’s difficult to accept that something you have spent time and money on isn’t moving you toward your objective or that something else might be better To Be Effective You Need To Understand Opportunity Cost If you are an employee with a poor boss who “doesn’t allow failure” it is even more difficult, but to be effective you have to accept that you can’t always back winners. Sticking with your initial decision and trying to work through it is the easy decision in the short term but it may well come back to bite you big time in the future. Deciding to cut and run may well be the short term failure that allows you to start on the long term road to success.
I’ve spent too long and too much on projects because I didn’t want to admit defeat or be seen to be wrong. I’ve learnt my lesson but it took me a long time. Please don’t take as long as I did.
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