Many of the clients I work with invest time and money to build a project or develop their career for 2-3 years with unsatisfactory results. They work hard at the daily routine of pushing the giant boulder up the mountain, only to watch it roll back down to the bottom time after time. Truth is, at some point I have to ask the question: “Is it worth it to continue?” If answering “yes” comes from a place of clarity, wisdom and confidence, then by all means don’t quit. However, many times artists & entrepreneurs are so afraid of failing, or losing, or crashing (especially in front of others), that they just keep going down the rabbit hole year after year until they hit rock bottom and fold up the tent in despair.
If your project is not growing or gaining ground after a number of years, and your productivity is going south, along with your original vision, then something is wrong. That’s okay. Just go back to your creative space and reinvent, reconstruct, or start over. That’s what the smart A&E’s I work with do. They know when it’s time to call it a day on one project and begin the process of investing their energy in another. Sure there’s disappointment. But when the conversation finally gets to the deep truth of the matter, it’s always more prudent, more practical, and more liberating to get the monkey off your back than to keep chasing rabbits down a dark hole.