I watched the final of the European Championships between England and Italy on Sunday. The match was in London in front of a packed Wembley Stadium, the largest gathering of people in England since COVID lockdowns began. The stage was set for an English carnival, and less than two minutes into the game England took the lead. It was pandemonium in the stands. That goal was also England’s only shot on target during the entire match. England’s mentality changed after the early goal and were willing to sit back and defend. Italy grew into the game and bundled home an equalizer midway through the second half and won the trophy on penalties. England had set out a team to make speedy runs behind the Italian defense, but after the goal abandoned this approach. In relying upon what was already achieved, England set in motion its eventual defeat.
 

Watching the game and thinking about it through the evening brought to mind similar ideas that have been percolating through my mind through COVID. One is about the process of writing, an area where I am working not only on this newsletter but also on two other projects that will see the light of day in the coming weeks. It is a short passage from Stephen King’s On Writing. Well, when I looked at the passage again it is really just a parenthetical, but oh well—“kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.” Editing is hard. It is difficult to look at a sentence or paragraph that you wrote, knowing full well that you wrote it, and cross it out or delete it. Yet editing is also when the muse can make its appearance to sprinkle some magic on the words you write.
 

The second idea that the match brought to my mind is from Seth Godin. He specifically mentioned a law degree when he said it, but the idea doesn’t just apply to me. The idea is this: Sunk costs are gifts from our past selves; our present selves get to choose whether or not to accept those gifts. Easier said than done, but it is a thought-provoking paradigm nonetheless.
 

In my professional life, walking away from litigation, the field where I focused my energies and spent the first years of my legal career, to pursue this corporate practice was the implementation of these ideas. It was me evaluating what I had written into my autobiography, saying thank you, and moving onward to the next phase of my life. The process was not easy: It was so difficult that it took the economy shutting down for months for me to initiate and even then I could only do it in stages, yet it has already been vindicated by our early success.


Turning towards my readers, your business may require a similar process. Perhaps you had an idea of what your product-market fit will be and you expended time, energy, and resources to chase that market. If it turns out that you gain traction in an unexpected niche, then consider turning towards that new opportunity. Maybe you launched a new product that was supposed to take your business to the next level, but something just isn’t clicking with customers. Wherever your business is in its journey, remember to always be iterating, always improving, never resting on success already achieved. If you are unsure whether your business needs to change course, seek the perspective of someone you trust who is not involved in the day-to-day grind. If that is one of us, great. Send us an email and we’ll schedule a meeting. If that is someone else, then reach out to that person (or people). They are likely to be eager to help you in whatever way they can.