A lot of people think that if you can just come up with a good business idea then you can make it big in this country, and quite often this is true. There’s another side to the coin, however, and it’s a reality that you never hear about on TV or in the newspapers. The fact of the matter is that sometimes an idea may look perfect on paper but once executed it quickly becomes anything but.

Now I’m not trying to sound like a jaded cynic here. If you have a good business idea then, by all means, give it a go. If you don’t take the risk then you’ll never know if it will be a huge success or a colossal failure. My point is that sometimes things just don’t work out in business and you must prepare yourself for that possibility.  A little bit of pragmatism never hurt anybody, and it's one of those personality traits that can help to right the ship when it has taken a wrong turn, so to speak.  There's persistence and then there's stupidity, and it will save you lots of wasted time if you can make yourself aware of the difference.

I’ll give you an example from my own experience. I once had this great business idea that involved providing a new kind of service to homeowners. On paper it looked solid. It was something that most homeowners could use, there were few companies stepping forward to address the need, and it was something that would actually save people money in the long run. I thought I had all my bases covered and that it would be a huge money-maker. So I set up the company, spent money on marketing, educated myself on the service, and waited for the phone to start ringing off the hook. To make a long story short, it just never got off the ground. Sure, I got an occasional call or job, but it quickly became apparent that it would never be the juggernaut that I had predicted.

Now, I had two options at this point. Either I could keep plugging away like a stubborn mule, refusing to face facts and hoping for a better future even though there was no reason to expect anything to improve. Or I could recognize that the business just wasn’t going to pan out and that I needed to fold and move on. I chose the latter, and now I’ve found other things that are performing much better and have a much greater long term potential. Needless to say, I think I made the right choice. As the song goes, you got to know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.  There's an old saying that you should "try, try, and try again, but don't be a darn fool about it".  I don't think I could say it any better.

You may think that I’m advocating quitting at the first sign of trouble, but that’s not the case.  Some businesses just need some time to really get moving, but if you’ve been trying for a year or more and things are not improving then you need to take a good long look in the mirror and admit to yourself that it’s just not in the cards.  It’s probably not even your fault.  It’s just the nature of business.  Some business ideas will work out beyond your wildest expectations while others that you thought were sure winners will turn out to be duds.  Instead of letting it get you down you just have to pick yourself up and try something else. 

If you look at most successful entrepreneurs in this country they didn’t hit it big their first time out of the gate.  In fact, you’ll see that most of them had many failures before they hit the jackpot.  The key is in never giving up.  If one idea doesn’t work out you shake it off and try something else.  If you try enough different businesses something is bound to work eventually.