Finish your work

Many companies fail because there’s no market need. Pivoting to another idea is a tough choice, especially when you have outside funding, but more founders should do it. Too many people stick to the idea that’s not working and keep pushing the decision of quitting.

Finish your work frequently and show it to the world.

The situation doesn’t change even if you add that one more feature or you work longer. If your competitive advantage is hard-working, you better off quitting now. Starting over is the thing you should do.

We naturally think of the product as a part of yourself or your kid. Admitting the fact that it’s not doing well feels like abandoning your kids. In real life, we search for ways to improve the future and do whatever we can to make that happen.

While the feeling is essential to make a great product, it drags you down to endless exhaustion, and it never works. Think of it as an opportunity to learn something new so that you can increase the chance of success next time.

By finishing many times, you get more attempts. By making many attempts, you get a significant number of samples. The bigger your sample size gets, the higher your likelihood of success becomes. Your 50th product may not be successful but certainly better than your first product.

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.

— Justin Jackson, Moving on

It’s scary, and there’s a sunk cost that stops you. You don’t go back where you started.

Every successful maker/creator goes through this. It’s mentally challenging and not something everyone can do. Most people quit by trying once or just being deadman walking, pretending to make progress. Most people won’t invest their time in things that take a long time.