When Your Business Doesn’t Work, End It
Entrepreneurs have a real problem that is extremely difficult to control, let alone resolve. Entrepreneurs are committed. They believe in themselves and their mission. They ignore all barriers to success as they see it, as they envision it. The relentless pursuit of achieving their goals and objectives is why they succeed against all manners of opposition. Their secret power is their relentless pursuit of their vision–their self-prescribed mission. They will walk through walls, leap over tall buildings and walk on water if they have to to succeed, to drive their mission to success.
That is their strength. That is also their weakness. Weakness? Yes, weakness. If the entrepreneur with his incredible power pursues a mission that cannot succeed, it becomes his weakness. Some plans are not capable of succeeding, yet if the entrepreneur does what he always does he will pursue it to the end, even if the end is disaster. The real challenge is, how do we control the uncontrollable–the entrepreneur’s commitment to success–when the mission is flawed? How do you turn the engine off when the road is too rough to navigate, when the mission is ill-conceived and impossible to succeed at, how can the entrepreneur admit defeat and end the mission? It is against everything he stands for.
MAYBE NOT. Maybe the entrepreneur is smart enough to know when to fold and when to bet. Maybe the entrepreneur knows when he has launched a flawed mission–a dud–and he needs to withdraw as soon as possible to fight another day, preserving resources, remaining viable, knowing when it doesn’t work and when it does. The real entrepreneur is smart enough to be more committed to success than to a particular mission, a particular plan, or a specific business. Success is more important to the entrepreneur than any specific business model. So yes, bailing out as soon as one knows the plan will not work as designed is a necessary and appropriate skill of the entrepreneur. The entrepreneur must live to fight another day and going down with the ship is counterproductive to the plan. When it doesn’t work, end it… as soon as possible.
