Churchill’s famous exhortation to the British citizenry in the dark days of WWII rings through history: “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never.” His inspiring words were requisite weaponry for the British nation, and ultimately allowed the Allied forces to triumph over the German army.
Few traits are as valuable in the entrepreneurial journey as grit and perseverance. Where optimism and grit are operative, success will follow. No other character traits are as important for business and life. Now for a question and a discussion of the other side of the coin. When should you quit?
A sacrilegious thought? Perhaps. But we are just not being honest if we stress a tunnel-focused perseverance that ignores facts when the story fundamentally changes. The markets shift, technology changes or funding sources dry up. When new factors come into play, new strategies are required.
The dirty secret in business is that we quit all the time. In some ways, our decisions concerning when to do so are a huge determinant to a successful business career.
During my days on the trading floor, my business partner and I were continually adjusting to the dynamic market conditions that we faced. Each morning we would huddle up to discuss strategy for the trading day. No sooner had the bell rung than we were dealing with a new set of circumstances that demanded we swim hard in the opposite direction. Often, we never discussed the change. Instead we adapted as required. Being right was a certain path to destruction. Better by far to be continually flexible about the evolving market dynamics.
Adjustments and incremental modifications—like those we made on the trading floor or those you make regularly in your business-- may solve the problem or prove to be an indicator of what is to come. Quitting. My experience is that the two are cousins in the same decision-making tree. Regular adjustments are made to avoid having to abandon the original plan. But when these tweaks fail to produce the required results, a bigger response may be required. And sometimes that means quitting.
My lifetime dream was always to succeed in the cattle industry—an admittedly strange notion for a kid from Chicago. But after moving to a ranch in Oregon in 1990, I was determined to build a profitable beef cattle operation. I soon became aware of the razor thin profit margins in my new business and began making incremental adjustments to improve profitability that included cost-cutting measures. Next, we took the dramatic step of selling the cow herd to focus on a running yearling cattle. When the results were the same, I was forced to decide. Should I keep trying to eke out a profit in an industry for whom profits were rare? Or should I quit to start a new business that might not risk my family’s financial well-being.
There is no easy way to quit a dream. Most businesses are birthed from the deeply personal aspirations of an entrepreneur. Surrendering it is mostly painful and hard. For a while, I had doubts about what would be left of me after letting my lifetime ambition die in Oregon. Ultimately, I found that the other side of this dream was immense gratitude. I had been allowed to live out my dream. Once I quit and released it from my desperate clutch, I was able to see what was next for me. The experience of having chased down one dream served me well in pursuing the next one.
The paradox we face as entrepreneurs is the need for infinite perseverance that combines with sobriety about our ever-evolving reality. It’s why what we do is so hard.
Keep pushing. And don’t be afraid of what’s on the other side of this business adventure. It might be a bigger and better version of what you are presently doing. Or it could well be an entirely new thing. The very thing you were made for.
