When it is Time to Kiss Goodbye, Do So with Grace.
Ventures, projects don’t always work out. Do our best and have an exit strategy. Remember, time is an equal opportunity equalizer. Investing our time in upcoming opportunities that will take off is what we have to focus on.
Starting from ground zero is easy.
Bring a group of highly motivated, insanely positive people into your idea room and watch the number of projects, ventures you can start without thinking too hard.
Acknowledging failure and recognizing the time to call it quits is inhumanly difficult.
It is like a breakup. It hurts the left ventricle of your heart, and the failure stings deep into our bones, sending chills all over.
Every venture and project is like that relationship with an ex-squeeze that never worked out. The following are classic examples:
- You want to eat ramen. She wants beer-battered fish and chips.
- You want to picnic at the park. He wants to hike the hill and plant the flag.
- You want to construct a viable path to profitability while your partners press for top-line growth.
- You want to focus on the gems in your product line, but your partners want to continue releasing new products to test the market.
When you are teetering on the line of sanity and depression, it is time to bid adieus and work on the next opportunity.
Identifying Tell-Tale Signs of an Opportunity Likely to Stagnate, Fail, Break Apart, and Never Take-Off.
Let’s not be a baby about it.
Projects, ventures, relationships all have one thing in common.
Failure is commonplace. Next, success is rare.
I have paid my dues in the workplace for 10 years and change. I can count with fingers on the left hand the number of bosses I can work with seamlessly.
It applies to ventures and business partners.
We come together because of one vision, and as with life and commercial reality, the vision evolves. Trouble comes when it moves in a separate direction and at a different pace from the others.
These are some red flags for potential stress fractures.
- Meetings — When your call-for-meetings are routinely getting deprioritized. It means your inputs are getting deprioritized.
- Meetings (Part 2) — They happen without you. You are not on their invite list.
- Budgets — Your budgets take forever to approve if you are not the finance person.
- People — Oath of allegiance starts appearing. Those loyal to you get purged.
- Internal initiatives championed by you — Cancelled for a variety of unbelievable reasons.
- So on, so forth.
When sh*t hits the fan, take time to think if the venture you are working on and the people you are working with is worthy of future time commitment.
Time can be deployed to better use when we free it up from futile commitments.
Be brave.
Initiate a split.
Pre-Plan the Split so We can be on Cruise Control when Things Happen
“Plan what is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small.”
- Sun Tzu
We are natural when it comes to thinking about bright blue skies with thick puffy white clouds. We toast, rejoice, and chant our cheers.
Planning contingent measures for an imminent catastrophe? Not quite.
But we have to do it. Because when the time comes, we might run out of logical sense to do what is necessary when emotional stresses overload our neurological systems.
I know because I have been there. I have been fired, and I fired.
When it comes to a mutually beneficial working relationship, transparency and respect reign supreme.
Below are the discussion points I factor in and put in ink for mutual alignment before we proceed to conquer the world.
The Barebones Plan B:
- Sketch out the exit runway. For projects and ventures, 3–5 weeks is sufficient.
- Put up a Gentlemen’s Agreement on exit compensation. Usually, in an upstart venture, equity is involved and not cash. You have to work out the encashment of the units you hold.
- Pre-determine a float of price per vested share. Ink the initial price at $0.10, for example, for the 2 million shares you have as part of a venture partner.
- At the exit, use that price per vested share to negotiate the encashment package.
- Run through your initial Terms and Conditions to ensure that your responsibility with the venture ends with your tenure. Make it known to your clients, prospects, billing partners.
- Carry no corporate debt with you when you exit.
I cannot emphasize just how important the above points are.
Leave with grace, heartaches, but not with any financial or commercial burden.
Note: You might have a longer list than mine, and that is fine. Make sure that your list ensures you leave without ongoing obligations.Pay attention to my next point.
2nd Note: Your ability to encash and walk away without future obligations will impact your direct involvement and investment in the next opportunity. Think hard and think twice.Summary
It is difficult to kiss goodbye, especially after pouring our souls and spirits growing our ventures.
This is especially so when we are involved in ventures or projects that are sexy such as artificial intelligence, the metaverse, product discovery community, and whatnot.
But things do happen.
When they do, you want to ensure a clean cut.
The simple acid test is this.
If you are no longer entitled to the benefits as the venture owner, you should not be obligated to carry the burdens that come with it.
There is a good reason to split. Because we can free our hands to work on the next venture.
As a content contributor, I write my observations from daily life and my business exposure. Because our life experience is the bedrock of our unique perspectives.