Smart leaders quit faster!

There’s a moment in every journey when you realize you’re heading the wrong way.

Sometimes it’s subtle — a tension in the gut, a quiet disengagement in your team, a roadmap that no longer makes sense. Other times, it hits like a wall: missed targets, rising churn, or a project that’s clearly dead but still eating up time and money.

Either way, there’s a truth too many leaders ignore:

The longer you stay on the wrong path, the higher the price you’ll pay to return.

We glorify perseverance. But what we rarely acknowledge is this:Persistence in the wrong direction doesn’t make you determined. It makes you expensive.

The myth of “stick with it” — and when it backfires

Startup culture rightly celebrates grit. “Keep going.” “Push through the dip.” “Be relentless.”

And truthfully, sometimes that’s exactly what saves you.

I’ve been there. There were moments where the data said "stop," but intuition said "wait" — and pushing through led to the breakthrough. The Push is real. And sometimes, it’s what separates the great from the mediocre.

But that’s not what this is about.

This is about the other times. When pushing isn’t bold — it’s blind. When the friction you’re fighting isn’t a challenge to overcome, it’s a signpost warning you to course-correct.

The problem isn’t hard work. It’s working hard in the wrong direction. It’s the refusal to let go — not the refusal to try.

We cling to failing bets because we’ve already invested so much. That’s the sunk cost fallacy: mistaking time, effort, and pride for a reason to keep going.

According to Harvard Business Review, companies that pulled the plug on underperforming initiatives early outperformed those that delayed by over 60% in long-term ROI¹.

It’s not about being less committed. It’s about being more honest.

A train is only useful if it’s heading the right way

There’s a Japanese proverb that frames it perfectly:

“If you’re on the wrong train, get off at the next station. The longer you stay, the more expensive the return trip.”

That’s not just poetry. That’s operational truth.

In leadership, the “wrong train” can be anything:

• A bloated software project that’s already two quarters late.

• A CRM you outgrew 18 months ago.

• A hire who looked good on paper but drains morale.

• A strategy that once worked — but now doesn’t.

You know it’s not working. But you keep riding.

And with every station you pass, you trade clarity for ego.

A real-world example you’ve probably lived

Let’s make this painfully clear:

You’ve been leading a product team for nine months, building a feature no one asked for. You raised the budget twice, extended the deadline three times, and burned through two project managers. Feedback is lukewarm. Engagement metrics are flat.

You tell yourself it just needs “more time.” But the truth is, you’re avoiding the real conversation: this should have been killed six months ago.

You’re not growing. The team is disengaged. But quitting now feels like a personal failure.

So you stay.

And with each month, the cost of returning to a better direction — whether it’s in morale, trust, or opportunity — keeps rising.

This isn’t theoretical. This is what’s happening inside most companies. Right now.

Delay isn’t neutral. It compounds.

Let’s break down exactly how staying too long costs you.

1. You lose your best people

Strong performers don’t stick around for slow-motion train wrecks. They see the writing on the wall and leave while they still have career momentum.

Gallup reports that teams with unresolved internal misalignment experience 22% higher voluntary turnover².

You’re not just losing time — you’re losing your future leadership pipeline.

2. You burn capital for no return

McKinsey’s research into “zombie projects” — internal initiatives that limp along without delivering value — found that companies waste up to 17% of their annual resources on initiatives they no longer believe in³.

That’s not budget mismanagement. That’s strategic cowardice.

3. You damage trust

Stakeholders — internal and external — can feel when something’s not working. If you keep pushing it anyway, they won’t respect your vision. They’ll question your judgment.

A late pivot feels sloppy.A timely one feels decisive.

A lesson in ego: why leaders stay too long

Let’s stop pretending it’s about logistics. It’s not that you can’t get off the train — it’s that you won’t.

Because getting off means admitting you made a bad call. That you misread the market. That your vision missed.

And if your identity is fused with your ideas, that feels personal.For many founders and execs, saying “This isn’t working” feels uncomfortably close to saying “I’m not good enough.”

But that’s ego. And ego doesn’t scale.

The best leaders separate who they are from what they decide.They don’t fear being wrong — they fear staying wrong.

Bezos said it best:

“If you're going to have a conviction-based strategy, you’ve got to be flexible in the details.”

Translation: Strong opinions are fine. Just don’t turn them into cages.

Rigidity isn’t a strength. It’s a liability disguised as consistency.

The faster you let go of what no longer serves the mission, the faster you start leading from clarity — not from pride.

At Zeekr, I’ve seen both paths

There’s a clear difference between companies that adapt early and those that cling.

One burns time and political capital defending flawed decisions.

The other reclaims that time and reinvests it in what works.

And here’s the irony: the latter ends up looking more confident — not less.

Because nothing says “we know what we’re doing” like course-correcting fast.

Conclusion: Let go faster

You don’t need more time. You don’t need one more meeting. You need to get off the train.

Because staying just one more stop — just one more month — might seem harmless. But it’s not.

It drains capital. It destroys trust. It delays growth.

Everyone makes bad calls. What defines you is how quickly you fix them.

And the return trip?

It only gets more expensive from here.