Understanding When It Is Time to End a Project

Back in Erik’s project management days, he received an amazing opportunity to oversee 5 new projects. Being assigned to this many projects showed the progress he was making in his career, the respect he had gained from his superiors, and his enthusiasm towards this opportunity. In episode 193 of Journey to $100 Million, listen in as Erik shares a huge lesson he learned from one of those projects. When Erik was reviewing each of these projects, he quickly determined one of them was in deep trouble. No one was content with the performance of the project including the client, employer, and team. After making sure the other projects were doing okay, he decided to focus his efforts towards improving the struggling project while he still could, before this became a failure. Although Erik put 95% of his time into this project, it never truly improved and no one could ever figure out how to make it any better. To put it frankly, this project was miserable for Erik. One day the client just canceled it and Erik’s 4 other projects were taken away from him. Erik learned a big lesson because of this cancellation. Whenever you are overseeing multiple projects, do not just jump on the landmine. Erik should not have put so much effort into this one project once he saw that it was doomed; he should have just declared it was a problem and focused on his other 4 projects. If something is outright failing, just let it fail. As an entrepreneur, this is obviously difficult because it is shoved down your throat to never give up. And of course, that holds true, but the reality is, never give up until it is really obvious you need to, because you can lessen the damage by ending a project. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is the also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.