Tenacity & Quitting
First, a Nova note: She is still with us, hanging in there. We are loving every moment we have with our beautiful puppy girl. Thanks to everyone who has sent kind notes regarding her situation.
Not completely unrelated to managing Nova’s declining health, I often ponder the challenge of striking the right balance between staying tenacious and deciding when to abandon a goal.
Media is rife with stories of people who irrationally hung in there, eventually accomplishing something amazing. JK Rowling, who eventually published the Harry Potter book series, making her wealthier than the Queen of England. Harland Sanders and his tenacious pursuit of growing the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant chain (he was in his 60s before it was successful). Steve Jobs being forced out of Apple, only to return and save it from the brink of ruin. Unreasonably tenacious sometimes pays off.
And then there are those whose path to their greatest success can be attributed to strategic quitting. Oprah Winfrey had to leave he co-anchor position on WJZ-TV in Baltimore in order for her creativity to conceive of her talk show. Jeff Bezos had to leave a well-paying job to start Amazon. And Reed Hastings (founder of Netflix) had to sell his successful software business before he would land on the initial idea that made Netflix such a success (no late fees).
Of course, the literal polar opposite of Netflix was Blockbuster Video. They were tenacious - irrationally hanging on to their late fee-driven business model, riding it all the way down to bankruptcy. And Kodak, tenaciously insisting it was in the film processing business rather than photography. Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman lit almost $2 billion on fire, insisting that their short-format video streaming business, Quibi, would be successful before finally pulling the plug. Plenty of people ride their tenaciousness all the way to ruin.
And sometimes we quit too soon. Ronald Wayne had a 10% stake in Apple computer, but got cold feet just 12 days into the venture and cashed out his $800 - which would be worth more than $100 billion today. There was a time in the late 1970s when Ross Perot had an opportunity to purchase Microsoft for something like $6 - $15 million, but decided it was was too rich for his blood, and walked away from hundreds of billions of dollars.
This is all to say that there are examples of tenaciousness paying off, and tenaciousness leading to ruin. Strategic quitting has unlocked major successes, and rendered some people an object lesson in poor decision-making.
Maybe there is no rhyme or reason. Maybe it mostly boils down to luck. I’d like to think these are some decent rules for striking a balance between Hanging In There and Bailing:
Do your best to clearly define what success and failure looks like for any given project.
Reflect often - take the time to really review how the project is going. Don’t get caught on the treadmill of doing, doing, doing such that you stop thinking.
Don’t fall for the sunk cost fallacy. Just because resources have been spent does not mean you obligated to keep spending your way to ruin.
Opportunity Costs are real, too. What else could you be spending your precious time and other resources on if you shut down the current project?
Signs you should hang in there a while longer:
You are seeing incremental progress, but its slower than you expected.
The underlying reasons for pursuing the goal remain valid.
You haven’t yet implemented your full strategy (give it a chance).
The obstacles you face are related to execution, not fundamental flaws in your thesis.
Signs it may be time to quit:
Despite genuine effort, very little progress has been made.
The landscape has changed that makes your goal less valuable.
You’ve discovered a (previously unknown) superior alternative that renders your goal moot.
Continuing would require sacrificing core values or well-being.
There is no path through life that doesn’t continue a few “what ifs.” It’s hard to know when to re-commit to something, versus choosing an entirely new direction. The easiest person to fool is often ourselves - cultivating objectiveness and sometimes brutal honesty with yourself will help you make the tough call.
Sunday Supper
These Potato-Cheese Pierogies w/ Bacon look fun and delicious. Get a jump on Cinco de Mayo with these Chicken Fajitas, or this Mexican Chopped Salad with Cumin Vinaigrette.
Sunday Music
This recent performance by Madison McFerrin at the NPR Tiny Desk is fun - exploratory in ways that make sense when you realize that she is the daughter of Mr. Bobby McFerrin. And here’s a jam from Goose, from last December. Enjoy!
If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them.
Have a great week ahead! Offer support to others. Make good use of this day. And let me know how I can help.
Peace & Love,