Entrepreneurs digging for diamonds — keep digging, pivot, or give up?

You may have seen this graphic before. But only the top two scenarios where the top shows someone starting to dig for diamonds and the one below it shows someone giving up just before breaking through.

I have added two more panels to the graphic so that it properly represents the reality of entrepreneurship.

You see, the original graphic is intended to communicate that you should never give up. If you just keep digging, you will succeed. But that's not true for many entrepreneurs. Sometimes we are digging in the wrong place — and continuing to dig is not going to help.

Sometimes we need to pivot or give up and try something different. In fact, many successful entrepreneurs failed on their first, second, and third attempts. But they pivoted or decided to do something different altogether and eventually succeeded.

The challenge is that it's very difficult to know when we should keep digging and when we should pivot or give up. But it helps to be aware of these possibilities and keep testing our assumptions to discover the best strategy going forward.

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