General

Sunk costs should be ignored…

but that’s hard to do.

Last year I bought a DVD set of a TV series I never got to watch. I watched the first episode. Didn’t get into it that much. Put it on the shelf. Each time I see it, I think, gee, I should really watch that.

But I don’t. Give it away? !! I spent $113 on it!

I realized my silliness today – I’ll give it away.

Sunk costs. We have them all over our lives. Emotion, time, effort and money. We hang onto people, ideas and things because we’ve got sunk costs.

But is that a good reason to hang on to something?

If you’ve spent $3,500 on product and training programs that aren’t working for you, you have sunk costs. So you keep thinking you should be doing them.

But you don’t. And you feel guilty.

My advice: If you don’t love it, don’t do it. Give your (training or any other) stuff away to someone who might really be able to use it.

Find other marketing strategies to test. Read what others are doing. Don’t listen to any authority who has an agenda that isn’t yours.

So what will you letting go of?

About the author

Kim Klaver

5 Comments

  • Kim,
    I sorta kinda agree with you. The possibility is a good one, that this person has been buying and never reviewing things like this, all his/her life. By the time the article arrives, they are already checking on the next one.

    This obsessive/compulsive disorder needs to be agressively analyzed and treated. Just giving articles away, is putting a bandaid on something possibly quite serious.

  • Kim you said: “Don’t listen to any authority who has an agenda that isn’t yours”. This hit me. Instead of stuff, I am holding on to the potential help of my upline. I am going to every opportunity meeting, every regular monthly meeting and I don’t want to go to any of them BUT I do because maybe one day in the future I will need my upline’s help with something. (He has said that if I want help from him that I need to attend all these meetings.) This is crazy! My upline, all the way to the top, think these meetings substitute for trainings – well they don’t. My upline has a different agenda than mine. Time to let go? HELP? Should I continue going for the sake of ‘that one day when I might need help’ or should I drop the sherade all together and be happier?

  • Anon with the demanding upline.

    Time to let go indeed. If you stay with that company, you can always go higher if you need help.

    Besides, do you want to be like that sponsor and force people to do things they hate out of fear?

    There are too many such sponsors in our industry. They need you to fill up the room and make it look packed. If they had better meetings, they wouldn’t need to threaten their recruits to come that way.

    Many sponsors force their people to attend the company events the same way, and to sit in their section. So they look good to the others.

    Disgusting.

    Drop the charade. Be happier. Say nothing. Just stay away and get your balance and, time and self esteem back. No need to badmouth anyone, you know?

  • For me, I evaluate whether to hang onto something based on my gut feeling about it. And, fear of loss is not always a good indicator of that!

    I MUST have a passion about what I am doing and even who I am working it with.

    Agendas with those whom I work don’t have to be exact, but there have to be some common threads!

    EXPECT Success!

    Jackie Ulmer
    Jackie’s MLM Training BLOG

  • Hi Kim

    This is ‘anon with the demanding up line’ checking in to say thank you for your advice. I was living with fear about the ‘what if one day’ scenario. Whew what a relief to drop that. And I will do what you said because I agree with it; I will drop the charade. Be happier. Say nothing. Just stay away and get my balance and, time and self esteem back. There is no need to badmouth anyone, agreed.

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