John Adair's 100 Greatest Ideas for Personal Success

Idea 43: Cut your losses

Because we never – or very seldom – have as much information as we would like, there is always a trial-and-error element to our best endeavours. One of the hardest judgment calls is knowing when to cut your losses.

It is hard to do this, because successful people tend to be tenacious. But they are also realistic. Reinforcing failure, as it is called, is extremely wasteful of all resources, not merely your time.

Intuition usually tells you when to call it a day. Be decisive. The sooner you cut your losses, the quicker you can move on to what you need to be doing. If you don't let go, you worsen the loss.

What also makes it hard to cut your losses is the degree of emotional investment and involvement that you and others ...