How to know without a doubt its time to give up the idea?

[eqttrdr]

Been struggling with this concept a lot lately as I have gone through more than my fair share of ideas put into practice only to give up when I find no interest.

Yet based on the paint brush cover and their 3 year perseverance to find success I often wonder at what point you call it a day?

What if they gave up 2 1/2 years into it?

At what point do you know you FAILED and its time to move on.

It seems almost subjective to a point where you are having to guess and that' cant be a correct methodology? There are plenty of threads on here going on for long periods without much success yet what happened to "fail fast and fail often"?

There are also progress threads that get started where weeks later the OP gets frustrated and gives up...


What constitutes failure to you? How do you know 100% your idea doesnt work and its time to move on?

 

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[CarrieW]

mine would be test marketing...

 

[Worldisyours]

hmm. good question. I've failed alot of times too be honest. Over 10 times at startups. But if I had not failed the 10 times, would I have been successful the 11th?

I think classifying it a failure is a bit too judgmental. Maybe a learning experience to do it better the next time is a better way to look at it.

Don't be so hard on yourself, Like you are not good enough. Because you are good enough. Things come in as they are supposed to come in. If everything was handed to everyone on one plate, how would people act?

It took me a long time to finally get comfortable.

I dedicated 10 years of my life to being a professional athlete and I DIDNT make it. Did I give up? I just moved on and eventually something worked out. So I am 27 and even though I spent 10 years of my life on something unrelated to business, I am doing well in business after a few years. Sometimes things work and sometimes things don't. Dont blame yourself, as long as you gave it your all. Instead be proud of your effort and reward yourself.

 

[Get Right]

I think of it more in terms of when you decide you aren't in the right vehicle to get where you want to go.

For instance - If you are driving a lambo but your goal is to traverse a glacier...you probably could find a better vehicle. Better to sell the lambo and buy a snowcat. Could you make it in a lambo? Maybe, but that's a lot of pushing.

That being said - you still need to test the snowcat. Test it fast. Burn it the minute you determine it won't get you there. Buy another snowcat, test it....

 

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[Strive]

In my opinion it's when you release your MVP to the market and receive feedback. Likwid knew his idea was great because he was a painter himself, and when he had his prototypes and initial run created other painters agreed (with their wallets).

Had he went through idea to production then released it to his target market and no one bought... He'd know he either has to pivot or scrap the idea altogether.

 

[profitgrowth]

The same dilemma is in my head, when is time to throw a towel in without giving up? Because you can't fail if you don't give up, right? And I was never quitter because winners never quit and quitters never win. On the other side, when is time to cut your losses and move to something else?
How to quit without being quitter?

 

[CarrieW]

Stopping something that isn't working or no longer serves you doesn't make you a quitter it makes you smart...

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[profitgrowth]

Stopping something that isn't working or no longer serves you doesn't make you a quitter it makes you smart...

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Agree but how do you know that you are not stopping too soon?

 

[CarrieW]

Read mjs post in what's wrong with me thread you commented in...

noone can make that decision but you.

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[profitgrowth]

Read mjs post in what's wrong with me thread you commented in...

noone can make that decision but you.

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Correct hence the main topic of this thread

 

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[CarrieW]

I already gave you one answer of mine above market testing I thought mj's post clearly outlined steps to take to see if its a worthy idea... as well as others in that thread...

personally, I don't tend to quit on things. ever. for example my product idea. I have shelved it to work on at a later date several times over the past few years. had at any point I decided to "quit" on the idea I wouldn't be working on it right now... just because I chose to pursue actively working on something else it was always there with my sub conscious working on it... had I quit and deemed it impossible my brain would have shut down...

that being said I wont "quit" on it because I "know" its a good idea. if I didn't know that and it became obvious that the idea was flawed and absolutely not going to work I would move on...

I guess when your finally out of ideas and doors to open if you feel you have done everything you can go outside of your comfort zone. talk to other people, read other things...(the catalyst that started me this time on my product was totally unrelated in any way but it got me past the hump I couldn't overcome before by trying to help someone else)

shoot it past someone else you can trust and see what they think. feedback is great but remember not absolute. people provide feedback with their limited perceptions so sometimes it takes awhile to change those perceptions to align with your view before they can "see" the value in your idea.

if you can find a reason to keep going forward do it... the easiest thing in the world to do is to quit... but again if it isn't helping you or serving you and you know it wont work... cut your losses and move forward...

 

[Zulu]

I think @snowbank had a post a couple of years/months ago where he said the length of time someone is in business is not a primary factor for success or gauging success[paraphrasing]. But rather whether the product is noticeably better in consumers minds than your competitors and whether or not you can reach the people in your market.

I figure with that in mind, if you reach x number of people in your market without getting the results you want, you could assume that you need to add more value[remember this is assuming you've reached x number of people - enough to allow you to make a statistical guess]. If you can't add the value needed[profitably] to improve the results with another test against x number of people, then exit the market.

If the issue is reaching the number of people you need to make a definitive determination of your value prop, it might be due to not having a definable market[like: golf players, or pregnant women]. OR it costing too much to reach these people profitably. OR being too hung up on one particular method of advertising[like SEO].

If it is that you have to close down a business, really don't feel bad about it. Having tried and gained experience, you're logically a lot closer to success than before. I know for me, it certainly didn't feel that way emotionally a couple months ago lol - but that's not logic.

 

[profitgrowth]

It all comes down to your gut feeling

 

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[Chadi]

The way I see it is that anything you set out to do and give it your 100% and don't give up on will succeed one way or another.

It is usually our preparedness to put up with it that determines our success or failure and not the other way around.

I've witnessed people who had "less" than our societal norms of intelligence, connections, capital and (insert your excuse of choice here) knock it out of the park and made fortunes with sheer hard work and determination. The path they took might not appeal to everyone but they made it work and it certainly wasn't handed to them.