Only The Weak Ones Quit!
Only the weak ones quit. Is that true? There is a story of a CEO
of a multi-national company who decided to withdraw a product
from the market when it had consistently failed for nine months
and eaten up millions of pounds in advertising, promotions etc.
Was he weak? He could have maintained the myth of success and
stayed in the market and gradually withdrawn, costing him and
his company many more millions. Instead, he chose to face the
fact that they had made a bad decision backing the product in
the first place. He admitted his mistake publicly and withdrew
the product before it cost him and his shareholders more money.
Is he weak? We believe the opposite is true. He is a winner and
winners quit in order that they can go on to achieve greater
success. Perhaps, therefore, the phrase should be, ‘only
the weak ones stick'. The strong appear to recognise when they
have exhausted all the options and get out before the situation
becomes a liability. The successful appear to know when to quit
whereas the weak ones, the unsuccessful, stay with a project
hoping and praying that it will turn itself around. Just stop
for a moment and ask yourself: Am I maintaining a project,
thoughts, attitudes or beliefs that I should have ditched a long
time ago? What is it that I know I should have quitted but keep
hold of? What am I holding on to because I am afraid to let go?
What is it that stops me from quitting? David was made redundant
in 2001 and decided, because he had been relatively successful
in corporate life, to become a management consultant, working
from home. He had read all the books and information on the web
telling him how much these guys earned and because he had 20
plus years in management they would be eager to call on his
assistance and knowledge. He realised he had little, in fact no,
selling skills so he enrolled on a number of sales training
courses. In fact David enrolled on and attended many courses in
the first six months to learn the ropes. How to cold call. How
to put a proposal together. How to find out the real problem in
the organisation. How to close the sale. Etc. etc. etc. The
problem was, six months later, no work. He had visited a couple
of owners of small and medium sized businesses to talk over
their problems, sorry issues, but he was never retained. He felt
that they were either seeing him out of politeness, because they
couldn't say no over the telephone or because they were trying
to pick his brains at the meeting rather than pay for his
‘expertise'. David actually met one owner on a number of
occasions, including buying him lunch, but to no avail. Lyn, his
wife, was getting worried because the redundancy cheque had long
since disappeared and their savings was going the same way. He
refused to apply for jobs saying that he knew he was doing the
right thing. He just hadn't found the right company yet. David's
sole marketing was cold calling and calling his old network in
case they had anything. As the months ticked away so did his
money, his temper, his relationship and his health. His cold
calling got less and less because ‘that didn't work'. He
found himself reading more, buying more and more management
books and magazines and becoming better organised. He had a
great filing system but no work. He decided he needed a web
site. So spent hours and hours designing and developing his web
presence. Many, many hours not contacting a potential customer
because they would now come from the web. The months went by,
the savings got less and less. His wife worked more and more
hours to keep the ship afloat. You see, David couldn't quit. He
couldn't accept that being a management consultant wasn't
working for him. Because only the weak ones quit. The difference
between success and failure is that successful entrepreneurs
know when to quit a project and start again. They are not
attached to their loss making thoughts, attitudes and beliefs.
It is the strong, focussed and determined that quit failing
ventures before it costs them a lot of money. It is an ego
driven myth that only the weak ones quit. Graham and Julie
www.desktop-meditation.com