Learn from my worst mistakes - #2

My mandate is to help people learn from my PAST mistakes.  Let me share #2 of 2 of my biggest mistakes:  Not quitting. That's right, there was a time when I should have cut my losses.

I do much better in this area now, but... let me give you an example of one of my first BIG "not quitting" mistake.  It was the Fall of 1983.  I had just produced my first national trade show in the computer industry, The National Software Show in San Francisco.

Attendance was light.  It was not profitable.  I had an offer to buy the company for $300,000.  At this price all bills were paid and I had lost only my time.  I was 26 years old...  need I say more?

I convinced family members and friends to invest about $60-70,000 and kept the company going.  A year later the company failed.  It was a financial wreck personally and professionally.  Yet it did not have to happen.

I was an unrealistic optimist.  By the way, pessimists feel all optimists are unrealistic, but history shows this is not true.  Both optimists and pessimists can be unrealistic.

Lesson Learned:  There is always another opportunity.

If you have a business that has stalled, then you have two choices:

1.  Get IN:  Identify the problem and fix it within a defined time frame.

2.  Get OUT:  Merge, sell or close it down.  Take what you learned and apply it elsewhere.

I am NOT saying you should always quit.  Sometimes you have to stick it out, but if you do, then define a date by which the situation has improved.  If you miss that date then you have to move on.

What if you have problems with your business partner?  Do your best, but do not stress out about it.  Get help.  Listen to counsel.  Be the best partner you can be, and then relax.  Whatever happens will create a new opportunity for you - with your existing business partner, or something else.

What if your marriage is not meeting your expectations?  Then be a better spouse, get help, listen to counsel, and give it time.  Marriages affect others... like KIDS.  All marriages go through seasons where it is challenging, but most can emerge better.  (Of course do NOT stay in a marriage if you are being abused.)  

What's one reason people (like me, a High D) do not quit? Selfishness.  I do not want to lose.  I am afraid of being out of control.  I...  I...  I have been working on the "I" thing for some time now.  How about you?  If you are stuck, then as Father Thomas Brindley once told me, "You have to do things differently, or you have to do something different."

Get out of the fast lane and think about that one.  Get some advice from people who only have your best interests at heart.  How can you think differently, come up with a lean process of change, and try to rekindle the dream?