No matter how much faster than the speed limit you go, you won’t possibly save that much time. Not only that, it’s a huge safety risk for a little bit of a time saving.
A chair you build for five cents cheaper might break 3 x as often as the original. Not only that, the customers who bought it won’t be back.
The irony is that the small costs often have the biggest savings.
Paying a little bit more for the better tasting ingredients.
Taking a breathe before you hit send on the email.
There’s a bagel shop opening downtown. And they only need 100 transactions per day to pay for their operations–to exist.
It’s not 100 transactions from anyone, though, it’s from the devotees, the bagel lovers who love to share their love for bagels, who buy batches at once.
If they only got the average Joe who comes in once a year or the newbie who heard they just opened and wants to see what it’s about-their transaction helps in the moment, but it doesn’t set the bagel shop up for long term success.
In order for them to be successful with average Joe’s, they would need 1,000 of them every day. Achievable, maybe, but likely far more stressful.
Then again, it depends on what sort of business you’re trying to build.
Are you a non-profit fueled by 10,000 people donating $2 or by two people donating $10,000?
Are you a crafty mom in search of 100,000 followers who like your content or 100 followers who buy it?
Once we know, once we decide, we can lean into it.
The only losing battle is one wherein we try to be both.
We know when others don’t care much about a project. We can tell because they don’t provide constructive feedback.
If they are shooting ideas down left and right or not giving feedback at all – perhaps just approving to keep it moving – then we know they aren’t putting heart into it.
The folks who can riff on changes for longer than expected, those who pick at the details, those who gut check that it’s making strategic sense at every step, those who provide meaningful feedback … there’s no doubt in hell that they care.
Interestingly enough, if we notice this in others, it’s likely they notice it in us, too.
If we’re not willing to stand up and provide constructive feedback, why are we reviewing at all?
Like a boxer, we love our corner. It’s the space we’re comfortable, there’s no one beating us up, we get good pep-talks from others and from ourselves and we are able to catch our breath.
The corner’s a safe place.
Unlike a boxer, we don’t leave the corner as much as we should. We don’t go out and put up a good fight, pick ourselves up when knocked down, get aggressive and enter the mental battle of endurance and determination in pursuit of our goal to make a difference.
I think, if we’re going to live life similar to a boxer, we might as well go at it fully; to use the corner when needed, but ultimately spend most of our time in the ring, working to fulfill our dream.
Even the phrase eggs you on to hang onto them; to linger in a past investment.
“Sunk costs”
It even makes you journey through all the time you spent on the cost, every dollar or hour or drop of sweat.
There’s a sunk cost that hits everyone at some point, but artists–they’ve got the worst of it. Most of their work, their days, their energy is a sunk cost.
All they invested yesterday might not impact their tomorrow, especially when faced with a new direction, option or demand.
Quick personal example:
I thought paying down a debt with a big chunk of change a couple of months ago would help me make a case for a business loan to fund a startup only to find that the bank would rather I have those dollars in the account and a larger debt instead.
There’s were no brownie points for good intention or less debt or a propensity to pay more on monthly payments than is requested. No acknowledgement of the investment made two months ago.
But that’s what comes with being an impresario. We make the best decisions we can knowing full well that they might not work, they may not be in our best interest, that we may need to pivot to keep moving forward.
So, when the opportunity of a breaking point draws near, do you hold on to the past or do you fervently move forward and play with the fresh hand you’ve been dealt?
An artist only has one direction when faced with the breaking point moment regarding sunk costs.
Forward.
Stay Positive & Remember That You – As A Linchpin – Signed Up For This. Own It.
