How do you know when to 'Give Up'?

[SSTrey]

By 'Give Up', I mean, to pivot OR change the road!

In everything I've learned & executed to date, I sometimes find myself in a predicament of a tug of war between my internal gut telling me to KEEP GOING or push on AND, in the words of Kevin Leary, --> 'take it behind the barn & shoot it.
I understand there is certainly a gut feeling element we often have, which helps us decide or let's us personally know if we have tried every avenue & executed every option on it to no avail. But oftentimes I hear about entrepreneurs who push the boundaries of persistence & discipline to either make it or to fail & dig a bigger hole for themselves.

How does one know, or will it forever be a non-exact science?!

 

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[Mikkel]

I doubt there is a science to when to give up.

If you wish to give up because it is "too difficult" or because it is lonely and boring, this is not a great excuse to give up.

If you have exhausted all your options and you don't believe you can find a viable solution to a problem, then maybe you are not the right person to solve the problem.

 

[Itizn]

When you're ok with being a loser

 

[Mikkel]

When you're ok with being a loser

I fail to see how giving up on a bad idea makes you a loser. Some ideas are bad ideas. Other ideas are not worth pursuing for a variety of reasons. We live in a world of finite resources. Some ideas are not worth pursuing because they might not provide enough value to the marketplace. Recognizing that before you sink a large portion of your time and wealth into that idea is a very good thing.

Now, if you don't take away anything from a failed venture, then that was a complete waste of time.

I have failed many businesses in the past. With each failure, I have learned some valuable lessons that I take with me into my next venture.

Don't expect you are going to get everything right the first time in business.

 

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[thomasdao]

The short answer is there're already threads about this topic on the forum.
The long answer is a book called The Dip by Seth Godin.

 

[Angler]

When you can be honest with yourself, that by giving up, you will reach your target faster. Faster than your current pace.

Why faster? That's because time should always be a strong motivation in what you do & how you do it. You have limited time, and to not find a way to do something better is a waste of that resource. There hasn't been a single week that I haven't ask if there's something I can tweak to make my workflow faster, more efficient, or better than the previous week.

Whether it's pivoting what you learn to another project or giving up on the habits that are not working for you, you know what will unshackle your restrains if you do some reflection. Or reading your journal entries.

The old saying is that insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. I'll add that persistence is useless when you don't surrender what's not working and adopt systems that works. Then keep on persisting, persisting, persisting, and so on.

It will hurt the ego, but so what.

Otherwise, if you feel like you haven't given it your all, or taken the time to slice up and audit your life, don't ever give up.

 

[Edgar King]

I remember MJ once saying...

You can give up when two conditions have been fulfilled:
A) You've made your first sale
B) When a large enough sample proves you should readjust or stop.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

I just posted this in the Unscripted Network...

Via the forum: When do you quit on a venture? The answer depends on 4 items: 1) Have you made the right offer? 2) Has your offer reached the right audience 3) Has your offer reach enough of your audience 4) Is my value a productocracy? Many failed ventures aren't due to a failed product, but a failure of offer crafting, channel targeting, poor UI, more. A good product can signal failure w/o the right execution behind it.

 

[SSTrey]

I doubt there is a science to when to give up.

If you wish to give up because it is "too difficult" or because it is lonely and boring, this is not a great excuse to give up.

If you have exhausted all your options and you don't believe you can find a viable solution to a problem, then maybe you are not the right person to solve the problem.

So no, it's not at all about difficulty. I'm a strong & very persistent person. I don't even care about lonely roads, I've been on one for many years.
It's more along the lines of whether I've done or executed enough (& correctly) to then be left with the decision to change my road.

It's also in keeping with your below next comments "Recognizing that before you sink a large portion of your time and wealth into that idea is a very good thing." --> So it's about recognizing it.

 

[SSTrey]

The short answer is there're already threads about this topic on the forum.
The long answer is a book called The Dip by Seth Godin.

Thanks Thomas. I have been trying to find these threads, guess I must spend more time looking for them.

 

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[SSTrey]

I just posted this in the Unscripted Network...

Via the forum: When do you quit on a venture? The answer depends on 4 items: 1) Have you made the right offer? 2) Has your offer reached the right audience 3) Has your offer reach enough of your audience 4) Is my value a productocracy? Many failed ventures aren't due to a failed product, but a failure of offer crafting, channel targeting, poor UI, more. A good product can signal failure w/o the right execution behind it.

Thanks MJ, this helps a lot.

 

[TheKingOfMadrid]

This is an important question, and it's often overlooked for the reason you've already seen - giving up is denoted as a failure in a culture where people have been bred to 'work harder, hustle more and never give in'.

To that point I would say that If you accept the common notion that most businesses fail, then it can be assumed that those running failed businesses would have at some point been better off if they'd given up and tried something new. You can probably extrapolate some interesting neural-pathway formula that reliably shows that exact moment new things learned from failure is outweighed by all of the negative effects.

Its symptomatic of a culture that places a great deal of weight in self-perception - and if you've ever seen someone hold onto a failing business it is sad, heart breaking and usually the severity is completely preventable.

Now, when do you give up a path or a business? For me it's when I no longer see a value extract from it.

I don't need to be 'happy' or 'passionate' about my business but I do need to see that it gives me value across either money, education or self-development - if it fails to do any of that and the economic cost is too high then I walk away instantly. Same with relationships - anything that requires my time - which I place a huge value on these days.

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One more point - Too many kids today are stuck in this endless loop of pursuing short-term money via copywriting, dropshipping, affiliate etc and other tired models that are having often producing less ROI% and increased instability year on year - I see this everywhere, literally - and it is soul crushing - worse is that this market create a group to sell your get-rich-quick BS to.

These are the same Kids with less than 5000 euro in their accounts trying to become day traders or crypto experts.

And they all get stuck for the same reason someone gets stuck holding onto a sinking business - if only they try harder, if only they learn this one new trading technique, if only they out work the competitions etc etc.

And yet, many of these vulnerable youngsters are facing down their 30's with excruciating instability ahead. Walk away, reassess your value-add to society and reset.

 

[SSTrey]

This is an important question, and it's often overlooked for the reason you've already seen - giving up is denoted as a failure in a culture where people have been bred to 'work harder, hustle more and never give in'.

To that point I would say that If you accept the common notion that most businesses fail, then it can be assumed that those running failed businesses would have at some point been better off if they'd given up and tried something new. You can probably extrapolate some interesting neural-pathway formula that reliably shows that exact moment new things learned from failure is outweighed by all of the negative effects.

Its symptomatic of a culture that places a great deal of weight in self-perception - and if you've ever seen someone hold onto a failing business it is sad, heart breaking and usually the severity is completely preventable.

Now, when do you give up a path or a business? For me it's when I no longer see a value extract from it.

I don't need to be 'happy' or 'passionate' about my business but I do need to see that it gives me value across either money, education or self-development - if it fails to do any of that and the economic cost is too high then I walk away instantly. Same with relationships - anything that requires my time - which I place a huge value on these days.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One more point - Too many kids today are stuck in this endless loop of pursuing short-term money via copywriting, dropshipping, affiliate etc and other tired models that are having often producing less ROI% and increased instability year on year - I see this everywhere, literally - and it is soul crushing - worse is that this market create a group to sell your get-rich-quick BS to.

These are the same Kids with less than 5000 euro in their accounts trying to become day traders or crypto experts.

And they all get stuck for the same reason someone gets stuck holding onto a sinking business - if only they try harder, if only they learn this one new trading technique, if only they out work the competitions etc etc.

And yet, many of these vulnerable youngsters are facing down their 30's with excruciating instability ahead. Walk away, reassess your value-add to society and reset.

An interesting view. To your point below, how do you know when your limit of money/education/self development is reached?
For me:
* Education - I feel I have read more than enough now, what's left is pure execution and pivoting as I go with executions teachings.
* Self development - I doubt we can stop developing ourselves.
* Money - BUT here, sometimes I see that spending another 500USD on the business helps it grow, that translates into another 1000 USD, and so on, this limit is what's confusing at times. Makes me wonder if I should just focus more on the Productocracy aspect instead and not spend the cash (also makes me think of hyper growth businesses like Uber)


"I do need to see that it gives me value across either money, education or self-development - if it fails to do any of that and the economic cost is too high then I walk away instantly. "

 

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[TheKingOfMadrid]

An interesting view. To your point below, how do you know when your limit of money/education/self development is reached?
For me:
* Education - I feel I have read more than enough now, what's left is pure execution and pivoting as I go with executions teachings.
* Self development - I doubt we can stop developing ourselves.
* Money - BUT here, sometimes I see that spending another 500USD on the business helps it grow, that translates into another 1000 USD, and so on, this limit is what's confusing at times. Makes me wonder if I should just focus more on the Productocracy aspect instead and not spend the cash (also makes me think of hyper growth businesses like Uber)


"I do need to see that it gives me value across either money, education or self-development - if it fails to do any of that and the economic cost is too high then I walk away instantly. "

Whenever there are other things I could do that would exponentially increase those areas.

Value is a judgment, and you only get better at judging the value of things through experience.

I might spend 500 to grow my business, or I might use it to holiday to a place where I have a network and probe for new opportunities - whatever I think is best value.

 

[SSTrey]

Whenever there are other things I could do that would exponentially increase those areas.

Value is a judgment, and you only get better at judging the value of things through experience.

I might spend 500 to grow my business, or I might use it to holiday to a place where I have a network and probe for new opportunities - whatever I think is best value.

Makes sense. Thanks, I appreciate your advice @TheKingOfMadrid

 

[Albert KOUADJA]

First of all Thanks to the people who left their opinions by this subject whose theme is '' giving up ''.

A real fighter gives up when he's out of breath. He can fall a thousand times, as long as he is still breathing he must keep looking for a solution. .I'm not saying continue to do something that doesn't work, but try several possibilities, readjust his action plans until he achieves what he wants. Even if he can't get where he wanted to go, his prowess will get him somewhere.

.so the worst thing is to stop fighting to look for a valuable solution. I believe that most entrepreneurs find themselves in this position: what to bring to society as a value
That quote of Steve Jobs, goes in this direction:
.''The best way to know true satisfaction is to
do what you consider to be good work. And the
best way to do a good job is to do what you
you like. If you have not yet found what you
love, keep looking. .as is the case with everything
concerning the heart, you will know it when you find it.
As is the case in a relationship, it grows with the
years ; So keep looking until you find it.
found. Above all, do not resign yourself ''.
.About his quote, I don't care about work whether I like it or not, as long as it brings value to people. I'm ready to do shit to bring value from this work. .

 

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[seomatic]

You can quit, when you have a better option. It's all about options in life.
Be careful with options trading though.