Moving on

I have a friend who's shutting down his retail business. When he made the announcement on Facebook, people replied in the comments:

"Oh no! This sucks! I feel so bad for you! It's sad that you have to close the shop. It's a real bummer."

In our culture, stopping is often seen as failure. We're taught to persevere; to keep going. But we can't expect people to continue every project they start.

We need to make room for people to quit.

Success requires stopping

Most of the successful people I know are good at quitting! When things aren't working, they move on:

"If I get an idea, I immediately take a step forward and see how that feels. If it feels good, I take another step forward. If it feels bad, I take a step back. I learn by doing." – Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia

Another friend, Josh Pigford, started 50 projects before he found success with Baremetrics. Think about that: from 2003 until 2013 he had to quit fifty times.

For most people, It will take multiple attempts to find something that works. If you keep doing what's not working, how will you ever find what does work? 

And even our successful projects won't last forever! Eventually, we'll need to move on. That's normal; that's healthy.

Good reasons to quit

There are many good reasons to quit:

• Markets decline.

• Our desires shift.

• Circumstances change.

When people decide to stop a project, we should be supportive. 

Instead of being sombre, respond with an affirmation:

"Good for you! That must have been a tough decision, but I'm glad you made it!"

There's no shame in quitting. Quitting gives you space. When you say "no" to one thing, you open yourself up to new opportunities.

It's OK to move on.

Hope this is helpful,
Justin Jackson
@mijustin

PS: trying to figure out if it's time to move on? This might help.