Decided to title this post to music and give you a soundtrack. If you are into music, read the rest of this post while listening to Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler”. Spotify music here:
Hopefully “Know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em” plays at the right time.
I wrote in a previous personal post, My Only Regret, “Don’t Quit!”. Yet, the fact is, that most winning poker players fold more often than they stay in the game. So what’s the conflict?
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Primarily, the biggest difference in quitting, as I mention in the My Only Regret post, versus something more strategic, is the emotion that comes with it. Quitting is an emotional response, perhaps fear or apathy. Deciding to stop doing something can, instead, be quite strategic.
A great business example is when to stop certain marketing activities. If you are following SA02 – Marketing Bandwidth* and have many marketing activities ongoing, you are also measuring their ROI with SA03 – Marketing Returns*. You have dozens of marketing “lanes” creating your marketing super-highway, but the fact is only have so much road (capacity) available in terms of money or manpower. You may start having fears that you are overspending in marketing, not getting the ROI. Out of fear, you quit marketing…besides your business can grow through referrals and sheer longevity. Heck, you are probably right it can.
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*I try to avoid linking to members-only content, but it was the best relevant example I had at my disposal. If you aren’t already a member and you really want to see it, register! The first 7-days are free and if you don’t like what you see, cancel (and if you would, send me a message letting me know what we can do better).
Now imagine, if you were having those same concerns about marketing ROI, but you reviewed your SA03-Marketing Returns* and looked at the ROI on each of your marketing activities. You find that half them had 0 return, a quarter of them had some return, and a quarter of them actually returned a profit. Now you can make specific decisions based on real data. Perhaps you decide to cut the half with 0 return, maintain the other half, and use those freed up resources to invent one new marketing activity. You didn’t quit, you just made a better decision.
In fact, I think we discovered the difference in quitting and making new decisions. Emotions versus data. Just like our star poker player, they didn’t fold out of fear. They folded out of informed data. Their starting hand may of had low chances of winning, and/or their opponents actions may prove to him that they have the winning hand. Either way, it’s an informed decision versus an emotional decision.
Especially during these uncertain times, look for ways to quantify what you can before making decisions. Maybe it is time to quit something, but what data exists to support that decision? Don’t forget to run these ideas by your mentor. Some sort of sounding board, whether its a trusted employee, spouse, partner, or consultant, ask for help making sure the decision is more data based than emotion based.
And if after all this, you need a sounding board, or some ideas on how to measure what may seem immeasurable, feel free to hit me up and let’s talk it through. My availability is one click away: https://calendly.com/eurekaprocess/free-consultation. Hopefully by now “The Gambler” is past the bridge so you can enjoy the rest of the song. If you want to stay on this topic for the rest of the song, sound off in the comments below.
