For those of you that haven’t heard the term sunk cost fallacy I’ll give you a basic example. You and your significant other decide to go see a movie for date night. About half way through the movie you realize neither of you are enjoying the movie yet decide to stick it out to the end because you’ve already paid for the ticket and invested the time of the first half of the movie. Get up and walk out already.
As the market changes I see people running their businees the same way. They say things like, “Jamie I’ve invested $15k into this and spent the last 12 months building it out. I can’t quit now.” Or even worse, she’s worked with me for 15 years. I’ve spent so much time and money investing into her development. I’ve I let her go I’ll have to start all over.”
GET UP AND WALK OUT OF THE THEATER. The market doesn’t care how much time or money you’ve invested into your awesome system. If it isn’t working for the current market it’s time to dump it and move on.
Need another example?
Many of you have spent countless hours creating a system or process for receiving, screening, and presenting multiple offers to sellers after one weekend on the market. I guarantee you many of you are still using this same process when what you really need is a process that keeps sellers informed about market conditions, activity on their home, and sets expectations around the time frame their home will sell.
Take a step back and look at your business. What are you holding onto because it’s the way you’ve always done it? What does your ego not let you cancel? What have you invested so much time and money into you’re holding onto hope that it works?