When Walking Away is the Right Thing To Do

Written by LiveLink
April 7th 2023

Walking away can be the right thing to do.

When things get rocky in life or in business, we all have a choice.  That’s to throw our hands up in the air and give in or to find some inner resilience and find a way through it.

For the purpose of this blog, I’m going to talk about this from the perspective of a business owner.

It’s a given that in any business, large or small, you’re going to go through some rocky times.  Some may be pretty minor and you’ll barely lose your stride.  However, some may be pretty major and will rock you to the core.

When something happens that does derail you, that’s the time to reach out to other people for support.  People love to help.

It’s also the time to be very truthful with yourself. Do you really enjoy what you do or would you rather be doing something else.  Is the business salvageable – it might not be.  The questions that the Dragons in the Den sometimes ask is, do people really want what you do?  And that’s a tough question to answer when you have invested so much of your time, energy, and money into it.

And a question that is tough.  Is self-employment really for you or are you happier and better employed.

Walking away from your business is NOT a sign of failure.  You tried.  Many don’t.  Sometimes that is the right thing to do for you.

Recently, one of my friends gave up running a café in North Norfolk.  This had always been her dream, but the reality proved very different, and she’s now returned to an employed role in events management which she was doing previously.  This is the right thing for her.

She put her heart and soul into the café but she couldn’t make it work and has sold it to a chef who plans to turn it into a bistro. The café had been haemorrhaging money for months.  It didn’t help that she purchased it a time when the world was about to go into lockdown. The effects of that of course had a massive impact on finances.  Barely open for 3 months and had to close.

Arguably, she should have made the decision to sell earlier but it’s not easy when there’s so much tied up in it emotionally.

Sometimes walking away is the right thing to do for you.  That’s the strong confident decision when it’s done for the right reasons.  Don’t be scared to say, ‘I’m done’ and then you can ask yourself ‘what next’. And that’s a realm of exciting opportunities.  And you’ll feel a lot lighter.