Steven Brant, in the Huffington Post, penned this article: Capitalism Is Dead. Now What Do We Do?
I think he’s got a brilliant point. Socialism for the big companies. Capitalism, or “sink or swim” for the small companies. He also raises an interesting point between financial experts versus designers.
Really, there’s a whole book in that article.
It raises a difficult question for us all: at what point do you decide to let something die? Let’s bring down to the level of your business. A lot of times we try something out. We put our best effort in, but we make a mistake. Or ignore our guidance. Or do something else that leads us down a dead end.
When do you give up completely?
Let me give you an example that holds a lot of personal embarrassment for me.
Back in the mid-1990’s I got involved with a network marketing company. I invested thousands of dollars, I went into deep credit card debt, I worked and worked and worked at it for two full years.
There was some success. And a lot of failure. At the end of two years, I had a confrontation with my wife Holly (one in a long series of arguments about it), and suddenly I just had a change of heart. I realized it was over.
I walked away from the business, dragging my credit card statements, broken relationships, and bruised ego with me.
It took me months to re-orient myself, to get my head screwed back on. I went through a lot of soul-searching and struggle. Eventually I came out of it, but it took years to clear the credit card debt.
But, there was that moment when I was willing to let all of my hard work and effort crumble to dust. To just let it go.
When do you let it go? When do you quit?
