I Give You Permission To Quit

Too many people still adhere to old school advice like “Don’t quit!”, “Don’t give up”, or “Winners never quit and quitters never win.”

But does that advice always translate into the business world? Often it means people stick it out in jobs/careers where they aren’t a good fit or their talents aren’t being utilized. 

Wrigley Moves to Chicago and Makes A Major Switch

In 1891 at the age of 30 William Wrigley Jr. moved from Philadelphia to Chicago to expand his father’s soap company.  When a customer of theirs purchased soap they received a free container of baking powder.  

The baking powder was more popular than the soap so they quit selling soap and switched to baking powder. 

The free item they included with a baking powder purchase was chewing gum and as you can guess, the chewing gum became more popular than the baking powder so they quit the baking powder business in favor of chewing gum. Now their name is synonymous with gum.

We would imagine if the Wrigley company were determined to make the soap business work and “not quit” then we wouldn’t know their name today and certainly there wouldn’t be a baseball park called Wrigley Field.

Johnson & Johnson’s Famous Fail

Take the Johnson and Johnson scandal of the 80s when glass was found in a number of their pill bottles. They took a huge financial hit recalling all of their product and instituting child-proof caps and reinforced packaging. In addition, they added a strong PR campaign to assure the public they are concerned customer safety. 

Being in business is a journey and in 5 years, or 10 years, it might look nothing like it does now. Is it time for you to quit something or make a pivot? Would your time and energy be of better use somewhere else in your business or in an entirely different opportunity?

We Give You Permission To Quit

We give you permission to quit. We’d also like to be the ones to help find your next great career path. Reach out at resume@mriz.net.