When quitting is OK

Oct 07, 2021 2:43 pm

Hello, fellow thinker!


Alberto here. I am exercising my decision making muscles these days.


In 2010 I started my journey as an online entrepreneur, launching fotocomefare.com. For some years it was the most viewed site in Italy for tutorials about photography.


Then I turned my attention to a more exciting topic: helping people build content-based online businesses.


I never managed to find enough time to keep fotocomefare.com growing. So, after some years I decided to put it up for sale. Unfortunately the market for established blogs in Italy is almost non-existant. So, I didn't find a buyer. But I found a business partner.


He also has other projects to prioritize, though. So after 3 years revenues aren't growing.


The site still as decent traffic, a large list and is also growing on Instagram. But it needs more dedicated effort.


So, I'm considering quitting.


I can hand it over to my business partner. Or I could settle for a low price. Anyway, quitting is probably the optimal decision.


It's consuming time, with no profits. Most of all it's always in the back of my mind "if only I could implement that tactic...". It consumes mental energy like an unwanted app running in the background.


But I feel a huge resistance. It's mainly sunk cost.


Rationalizing, I tell myself "if everything else goes down the drain, fotocomefare.com is always my plan Z. I can get back to it full time and bring it back to profit". But it's only an excuse.


Two trusted friends gave me the best suggestions to defeat this resistance.


One told me that:

  • "everything else goes down the drain" is the least probable scenario, it's weight on the decision process should be low,
  • if everything actually goes down the drain, would I really want to go full time on fotocomefare.com? Or would I rather start fresh with other projects?


He knows me. I would rather work on different things I am already exploring in my free time.


The other friend told me that in his life there's no space for "plan Z". He dives into is plan A. When it stops working, or something better pops up, he dives in the new plan A.


So, I think I'll be parting ways with fotocomefare.com. 😭


I hope my friends' words will help you get unstuck when you need it.



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