The Only 4 Times It’s Okay to Quit

Quitters never win right?  Quitting is rarely popular when it comes to getting advice.  But, quitting can be your most viable option, as long as you’ve really explored your alternatives properly.  At times, continuing through with something when you should quit, is tremendously more harmful.  What is it about “quitting” something that makes people treat it with disgust?  Because it’s an admission of defeat?  It requires starting over again at something else?  It means explaining to others why you stopped?  Whatever the reason, quitting is easiest when you’ve deeply evaluated other options.  But the concept of quitting as your last resort couldn’t be more wrong.

Quitting is far too often mislabeled.  Having the insight to quit, at times, is advantageous in many scenarios.  Here are 4 scenarios where I believe quitting should be encouraged.

1. What you’re doing no longer aligns with your values – This can be a slow regression. You join an organization, company, or team because you have shared values – maybe it’s a mindset around serving the customer, or because of a stellar product that solves a need.  Whatever that core “reason” is, as time goes on you notice one of two things.  Either the “value” that you joined the company for, or started a new business for, isn’t one of your strong values any longer.  Or, the company itself, no longer prioritizes that value.  Perhaps along the way, they have abandoned their innovative strategies that hooked you in the first place.  If this trend is continuing for an extended length of time, it’s likely time for you to quit this endeavor.
2. You’re not reaching your personal goals by continuing – We all have personal goals, whether you know you do or not. Sure, some of your coworkers may have the goal of being at home and on the couch watching Netflix by 5:45pm, while others may want to scale all of Denver’s 14,000 foot peaks.  Let’s focus on “developmental” goals though, rather than personal enjoyment goals.  An organization that is run efficiently, will enable it’s individual employees to reach individual professional goals.  In large part, this may inadvertently aid you in reaching personal goals as well.  When your venture ceases to push you towards your personal goals, it should be evaluated.  To clarify, providing an income so you can live the life you want, IS a good goal.  If your life is full of goals and personal development outside of working hours and your job helps you achieve those goals by providing you with a consistent schedule and income opportunities, than by all means that is okay (and awesome).  But, when your project, job or business is running (or ruining) your life, and costing you your personal goals in the meantime, it’s time to move on.
3. You’re not seeing progress – Quitting because you’re not hitting your objectives is a tough pill to swallow. No one likes admitting that they’re failing.  However, having the “seeds of reality” discussion with yourself is often so needed.  Failure to reach your crazy unobtainable goals is one thing.  But, repeatedly missing significant milestones is another entirely.  When your business isn’t reaching the performance metrics you or your shareholders are expecting time and time again, you need to immediately do one of two things.  First, ask whether you set the right goals.  If you didn’t, then by all means, correct them first rather than quit.  Second, if your goals are reasonably set, and you can’t seem to attain any of them, this indicates another problem.  Obviously, this doesn’t directly mean that you SHOULD quit, but it may open that option.  This is the reason we see some young companies kicking along for years, bleeding cash, losing investors and employees, but they keep limping another year, two years, or even longer, before the inevitable happens.  Hitting the wall and missing your objectives may be a sign that what you’re working on just isn’t your thing.
4. You have no passion or interest in what you are pursuing – This is my personal favorite, and probably the most controversial. I have a strong hunch that the millennial generation might permanently shift the importance of culture in the workplace.  Millennials want to be motivated BY their work, not only motivated TO DO their work.  There is a difference, and this is a shift from previous generations where employees might largely conduct their work to provide an income, nothing more.  Losing interest in your work will eventually take its toll on you.  It’s a matter of time before you aren’t reaching peak productivity any longer.  The less interested you are in your work, the less effort you exert.  You then harm the company or organization, and you harm yourself.  Therefore, you’re doing both parties a disservice.  Contrarily, a passionate employee who cares for their work output, and the values and products of the company or organization they represent is, adversely, a tremendous service to the company.  When your interest is beyond repair in what you’re doing,  call it quits and find something you can get excited about.

Important point – any one of these above things being true, does not instantly mean that you should quit what you’re doing.  However, it could be a large indicator of exactly that.  Further, a huge red flag that you need to quit is when there is one singular and trivial reason you’re sticking with your project.  Only you can know what this is.  But that feeling will rarely betray you.  Don’t hold on to something, when everything inside of you is saying “move on”.

If you’re feeling a pull to quit some pursuit you’re involved with, go through this checklist.  You may be surprised at how clear the signs are that it’s time to hang “it” up and move on to something else.