There is a tough thing in life. We make business decisions and invest millions of dollars. Many times it doesn’t work out. How soon did we actually know that before we launched?

Was it one week before the launch?

Was it one week after we started?

What if we had pulled the plug on the project one week after we get started?

I have lied to myself and my team before about projects that I knew early on weren’t going to work. We can’t plod ahead hoping for the best. As we all know, hope is not a great strategy. Courage is a better approach. Courage, however, can get you fired.

The worst thing is figuring out one week before we launch that the product won’t work for long.

Even worse, what about one year after we launch.

One time I was called in to evaluate a project that the company had already spent $15 million on and had been in the marketplace five years. Every year it was bring the company’s balance sheet down. Pretty soon they would be in a death spiral. Not pretty.

Being the new guy, the CEO asked me what to do. I assessed what was going on, ran the numbers and recommended that he cut their losses and kill it. He immediately agreed and had only been waiting for someone to say that to him.

Past expenses have nothing to do with future economic decisions.

Source: Seth Godin