Throwing in the towel
You’ve been sitting around with a few friends, talking, laughing and it hits you! The next big thing! Your next (or maybe first) company! You share it with your friends and they help you work out the details and you just KNOW this thing will be awesome.
A few weeks go by and you’ve invested some serious time and effort (and maybe even money) into this effort. You have the basics of a business plan, a rough sketch of a marketing plan and you’ve even told your family. Everyone’s in your corner, rooting for you.
A few more weeks pass and you hit the wall… You realize that you didn’t do as much market research as you thought. Maybe there’s another company that’s already doing what you’re doing. Maybe the costs to start will be too high for you to handle. What do you do?!
You can’t just “stop” because you’ve already told your friends and family about it and to stop now would mean losing face. It would mean that forever more, you’re labeled as that dreamer that never gets things done but talks about those things all the time.
Relax. We’ve all been there and we’ve all given up on a few ideas. But at this point, you need to stop and think. Take a break from starting this company of yours and assess if it’s really worth continuing. The simplest thing to do at this point is to make a list of your alternatives. What’s the alternative use of your time? What’s the alternative use of your money?
Next, take those alternatives and create a little table to assess the pro’s and cons. List EVERY pro (even the dumb ones) and EVERY con (ESPECIALLY the dumb ones) just to keep the analysis accurate. After you’ve compiled your list of alternatives and the pros and cons of either staying on course or pursuing an alternative, STOP. DO NOT DECIDE ANYTHING.
Give it a week to simmer, then look at your list and cross out the pros that are overlapping. For example if you have three options:
- Continuing to work on the business
- Getting a job
- Going back to school
If all three have a pro of “gives me a productive way to spend my day”, then cross that pro out! Same with the cons.
Now that you have your FINAL list, spend some time thinking it over. Which of those pros and cons do you really care about and which are just there for the sake of being there.
Remember, there’s no shame in throwing in the towel if it’s for good reason. And quitting early may be better than quitting late. I’d love to get your stories on when/how you quit ideas, so please leave comments.
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