Get ahead by knowing when to quit

We have all heard the adage that winners don’t quit. Quitting is for, well, quitters! Sure, it’s not good practice to give up on something simply because it’s difficult, or because you haven’t had immediate success. But what about strategic quitting?

Strategic quitting is the practice of using quitting to your advantage and knowing and identifying when and what to stop.  Continuing with non-productive tasks and activities is a waste of your resources. There is at least one thing in your life right now that you know you should not be doing. It doesn’t feel right. It’s wearing you down. It’s keeping you from achieving your goals.

Pursuing that which does not advance your vision is an exercise in futility. A good example of this is a manager who focuses so much on the minute details of a project that she loses both sight of and grip on the end goal. Twenty four revisions on something. “I think we should use ‘annually’ instead of ‘yearly.’” People who do this need to quit - not quit their jobs but quit being so down “in the weeds.”

Then there are the folks whose products have been losing money despite promotional efforts and aggressive sales tactics. They need to quit. Devoting an hour to a product that doesn’t have the potential for profit means there is one hour fewer to focus on something that can make money.

I understand. It’s scary to quit. To admit that perhaps you’ve failed. You’ve invested so much of your time, endured so many sacrifices. “Quitting is not an option,” is the mantra. If you quit now, all of your efforts will go to waste, and that is terrifying. The prospect of giving up can be paralyzing.

Think about your resources as an economist would. What is the ROI on your time? Do the long-term costs outweigh the short-term benefits? What is the future outlook?

In managing your career, it’s imperative to know when to quit. If you’ve reached an impasse in your current role, you might want to consider looking for a new one. If your field is being automated and humans are being replaced with machines, no amount of effort on your part will stave off the inevitable. You need to figure out something else. You need to quit thinking that all you can do is what you’ve always done.

Strategic quitting is liberating. It is power. Quitting isn’t failure. Quitting can be smart. You create an overall strategy, and you don’t quit that. You quit low-value tactics. Strategic quitting isn’t lazy—it is forceful. It moves you forward toward your end goal.

What are you doing that you should quit?