Know when to quit

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I've seen a lot of people talking about pushing through hard times at all costs in an attempt to finally be a success. That's great, but there is a dark side to that mindset if you aren't careful.

Everyone needs a realistic exit point. That is, a time when failure is accepted and you move on with the lesson you've learned. The danger in pushing through a never ending failure is that you end up spending time failing at one thing when you could have been building towards success at something else if only you had moved on.

From the very beginning you need your own definition of success and failure. Don't be too wild with your vision of success. You don't need a Ferrari. Likewise, don't be too wild with your vision of failure either. It's not okay to flounder for years.

The new road may very well involve more work, more studying, learning new skills and so on. That's life.
#mind warriors #quit
  • I understand your point.
    but I feel there's a big difference in keeping on doing the same thing always, even when you're not going forward...
    ...and going back to the whiteboard and replanning when it's not going forward. Keep on going, but from a different direction. That's when you learn what to do, and what not to do.

    Trying to sell toothpaste is hard. So then you might have to try to sell toothbrushes. When you find out they don't sell very well, you might have to sell electric toothbrushes.
    Then you are not quiting and moving on to something else, but instead your trying to succeed by selling different things to the same market. Finding out what works and what doesn't.
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  • Thank you. People get so excited about taking action they sometimes forget that it's the right action that's important. You can work for years taking action doing something that doesn't work and never make a dime. Regardless of how much success or failure you might be experiencing it's important to periodically step back and evaluate what you're doing.

    Then you can make adjustments to improve your plan or chuck the whole thing and find out what's working and run with that. I will agree though, that taking action, even at something that doesn't work, helps form the habits needed for success.
  • Going forward,is the secret.If there is one.
  • I totally I agree with you that one of the pillars to success is knowing when to call it quits. Always make sure that the timing is always right, never too late and never to early.
  • I agree, but I think that failure is important. Almost every successful person (not just in IM but in business, the arts etc) will tell you that they failed more times than unsuccessful people.
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  • "If all else fails, run away"

    It's not like running away and never looking back. It just that running away gives you sometime to think about, what you have done wrong like what DubDubDubDot said. Learn from it to prepare to fight for another day. Steve Jobs is a master of this and made apple from just making stuffs like everyone else and changing it to making stuffs that is truly Apple.

    Jing Quimpo
    ""
  • Failing is not a failure if you gain knowledge from it, failing and learning from it is far more beneficial than not.

    I always say "run it till the wheels fall off" Id rather lose it all than leave anything left on the table.
  • It all comes down to focus and realising what actually works. I have spent so much time on certain processes that when put into action don't always work but I believe in them so much that I push and push like crazy even though it will probably never go anywhere.

    Yet there are times when I do nothing and the results are top notch!
  • http://www.warriorforum.com/mind-war...se-winner.html
    • [1] reply
  • great post, thank you. i agree though that you need to know when to quit - or better - when to change something. often success and failure are close together. we might just do something small completely wrong and that leads to our failure.
    so i´d like to add:
    don't be afraid of changing before you finally quit.
  • nice video post
  • Failure is an important part of eventual success. Quitting certain things is fine as long as the ultimate goal is never given up on.
  • I think I'm headed to the point where I'm about to quit myself. I feel like I'm doing so much work for just pennies in IM and it's going nowhere. I am in serious financial trouble right now so maybe I should take a step back and be more realistic. I think that's a huge problem for me, I need to know when to quit chasing dreams and repeatedly failing. Good post, has me in serious thought right now.
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    • So sorry to hear things are at such a low point for you. Maybe you just need a breather. I know what you mean about realistic, but don't totally abandon your dreams. Dreams, hopes, goals are what keep us going. Could you scale your time and efforts down to where you feel you are not investing more than what it is worth. Maybe just schedule yourself a small portion of you day so that you can keep your hand in so to speak. I know that its a horrible feeling to feel like you cannot achieve anything so you need to get some feelings of satisfaction and accomplishment in some other ways. But don't throw the towel in completely, I think you are in a very low spot right now. Light will come. Just take some time to reassess and then plan accordingly.
  • I've come to the point of several times where I've come to realize that I need to quit and what I'm doing is not working.
    This really is key, because after some of those occasions my next project made me a hefty profit and I had strong successes, but I never would have been able to get to that point if I didn't know when you quit at something and when to keep on going
  • Fair enough if that's your opinion, but i have to disagree. I'm getting myself that Ferrari!

    -Michael

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  • Great post. Its usually a tough decision whether to keep trying and trying something that's not working for you (but has worked for other people) or change your business model. Especially here in the IM world.
  • In my opinion, Dont ever give up, until you cant do anything else.
  • Maybe its not quitting, but just reassessing, going back to the whiteboard as someone said earlier. It seems to me you have to keep the entire goal in mind, and not just the particular side street you are on. That said, going for every shiny thing is not what I'm talking about. There will be times when it is necessary to reassess where you are. But quitting will make sure you never succeed.
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  • nice share...
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  • Most people at least for me have their pride and ego, so quitting might be a major setback for them and to prevent themselves to be labelled as failures they tend to grit their teeth and soldier on, even when they themselves are certain they are going to lose the battle.

    A painful lesson.
  • Don't give in every things that you have started. Just always think that tomorrow is another day!
  • If you fail to win the game it doesn't mean you're a loser. It's not how you win the game but its how you played it.
  • know when to quit.. its easy to fall, hard to get up. but once you're up and back on track, u will be a better person... thats the way of life.. u just dont live it..u learn from it..
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    Know when to quit

    I've seen a lot of people talking about pushing through hard times at all costs in an attempt to finally be a success. That's great, but there is a dark side to that mindset if you aren't careful. Everyone needs a realistic exit point. That is, a time when failure is accepted and you move on with the lesson you've learned. The danger in pushing through a never ending failure is that you end up spending time failing at one thing when you could have been building towards success at something else if only you had moved on.