Winners Never Quit, Quitters Never Win
Sometimes I get a little weary of affirmations which trip off the tongue and whilst having some powerful motivational value, can over the longer term, serve to undermine that very drive their advocate seeks to stimulate. So, it has been that occasionally on days when I am taking a step back to look at the big picture, in true passive-aggressive personality style, I look for potential pit-falls, as well as calculating the value of what would otherwise be purely ‘positive affirmations’.
When I first heard “Winners Never Quit, Quitters Never Win” it gave me a real rush of “let’s do it” hormones. It was a phrase I boosted my activity with when I felt somewhat over-whelmed by a steep learning curve. I still like it enough to find myself repeating it internally, when frustrated by one challenge or another.
Nevertheless, life is never simple, so whilst I am all for seeing my glass ‘half-full’, let’s be realistic… When taken in context of the fuller picture, singing ‘Always Look On The Bright Side of Life’ and carrying on regardless is just going to get you further into deep water. So for instance, we can tell ourselves little lies in order to maintain the status quo, because the familiar is comfortable and predictable for us, when what we need more than anything is to step out of a potentially destructive relationship with whatever activity, person or business we are involved with.
This fact extends to you and your business. In the words of Perry Marshall:
” Let’s get something straight: Some businesses don’t work. Some enterprises aren’t worth doing. Some products are so weak that nothing can save them. Some ventures are doomed from the start, and even if they *appear* to be worthwhile.”
I recommend that as single business owners, without any team, you adopt two or three marketing strategies that you are comfortable with and can build on your learning with, only moving onto new marketing strategies, when you have consolidated those initial techniques. As a newbie entrepreneur, you need to be checking and testing your results for whether you are successfully building your list with your tecniques. If you tweak and alter a particular technique, like video marketing, but are just not getting clicks to your site, you either need to learn from other video marketers or think of something else, because, sexy as video is, it just isn’t your forte perhaps. You can always come back to it, having mastered an easier marketing method.
The reality in terms of your results achieved should serve to sharpen your mind and allow you to let go of sentimental attachments to situations or strategies which no longer serve their purpose. In business, we must regularly evaluate whether the good outweighs the bad, with a constant eye to the bottom line. Knowing when to cut our losses or move on is not necessarily about ‘being a quitter’. Having the strength to make uncomfortable decisions is a strength.
If your business is not profitable, it’s time to take a long hard look at what you are in it for. If however, you are ‘moving on’ because in reality, you were just not prepared to learn from mistakes, then you will find yourself in exactly the same mess further down the line in another failing business.
If you sincerely believe that you are on the right track and need to just get through some practical obstacles, but feel like running away because it’s all ‘just too much’ (We’ve all been there), this is the time to say “Winners never quit, quitters never win!”
It’s natural to have days when we call into question the direction we are going in and is even healthy to do so, rather than burying our heads and telling ourselves “It’s fine. It will be alright” knowing full well that your doubt has been daily now for over a month!
Effective business management in terms of our marketing means looking at the real numbers and results to differentiate between successful and losing propositions. Are you looking at your CTR and analysing the cost of acquiring customers to get down to the true cost of your business and overheads, for instance?
If the amount of work and time involved, taken with the true cost of achieving sales is devaluing your time and eating into profit margins, it’s time to drop the destructive habit and learn from it before finding a better option. So if you ‘quit’ and gain by that, how can you be a loser? People quit bad habits daily, why not apply this same evaluation process to your business and marketing?
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