A long time ago, I read a book entitled "Too Good to Leave, Too Bad to Stay."

Although the book was about relationships, much of its content could equally be applied to many different aspects of life: Businesses, jobs, investments, politics, belief systems and more.

At the time, the overarching takeaway was the uncomfortable truth that the majority of the choicepoints we face in life aren't clear cut "yes" or "no" decisions we can apply without much of a second thought.

While we might like to think otherwise, situations like "The house is on fire, get out: Yes/No?" are actually quite rare.

There's inevitably nuance and ambiguity. Pluses and minuses on both sides. Often we end up with a 50/50 proposition, or something very close.

Sometimes there's also a paradox involved in the situation.

Consider the situation where you have worked hard and built a fantastic business that has become the undisputed market leader... in an industry that's in decline and will be all but obsolete and irrelevant within a decade."

Your customers are happy, loyal, recommend your company, keep coming back and praise you... but every year, a few more "die out" and aren't replaced by new customers, or are replaced by far fewer new customers than you've lost old.

For example, 50 years ago almost 10% of the population — young and old — collected postage stamps as a hobby. If you were involved in Scouts, you could get a badge for Stamp Collecting. It was a great pastime for retirees. Your grandfather or uncle probably collected stamps.

With the advent of email as a replacement for snail mail, stamps stopped being "in the public eye" every time you went to your mailbox. Meanwhile, video games took over as the primary hobby of the young.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with stamp collecting. Nothing actually happened to "IT," something happened to the surrounding environment.

It can be frustrating and demoralizing when it's a business that's under consideration... because you didn't actually fail; quite the opposite! And yet you face a situation that pretty much feels like forced closure, and the prospect increasingly becomes one of "we gave it a good run, but there's nothing more left."

One of the things they do not teach in business school is how luck and fortune can be a large part of doing business.

And so, one day, you may find yourself facing the reality that you're been winning, but at a losing proposition.

It can be a bitter pill to swallow!

Thanks for coming to visit!

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