One of the hardest lessons I learnt in business was this.
If you're going to fail, fail fast.
It sounds wonderfully punchy, but the truth is you only really believe it after you've died by a thousand cuts.
We all understand it with products, ideas and strategy. We try something. It doesn't work. We stop. We move on. Nobody expects us to keep pouring time and money into something that's clearly failing.
People are different.
We tell ourselves they're covering their salary. They're nice. They'll grow into it. They just started at the wrong time of year. September always seems to get blamed.
So we wait.
Meanwhile everyone else pays the price.
The team carries them. Managers spend their time managing one person instead of developing ten. Standards go sideways, not because of one spectacular failure, but because everyone gets used to compensating for it.
The most expensive employee isn't usually the worst one.
It's the one you know isn't right, but keep anyway because changing feels harder than tolerating.
I made that mistake too many times, but I got there in the end.
Failing fast isn't about treating people badly. It's about treating everyone else fairly.
And I'd go as far as saying this.
Most business owners don't fail too often.
They fail too slowly.