Two ways people go bankrupt

I haven’t read Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. But this quote is fun:

“How did you go bankrupt?”

“Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”

An army of people came before you. Most reach a measure of success by putting their heads down and doing the work. 

That becomes habit and then the new status quo.

Those that settle get attached to what brought that initial success.

They get a fixed mindset that they’re moving in the right direction, because they are. 

Until they aren’t. 

If you took a step back and looked at the trajectory of your business, you could accurately predict where your current approach is taking you. 

Here are two questions you can ask yourself:

1. If your business never reached that next level of breakout success, what would be the reason?
2. If it did reach that next level, what would be the reason?

Where are you “gradually” headed?