When persistence becomes stubbornness

We have made persistence a virtue and quitting a character defect, which means an enormous number of people are trapped inside decisions by a story about grit.

The distinction is simple and unpleasant

Persistence is holding on to the goal while changing the method. Stubbornness is holding on to the method after the goal has quietly become irrelevant.

If you cannot remember the last time you changed your approach, you are not being persistent.

What are you actually protecting?

Often it is not the venture. It is a self-image — the person who does not give up, who was right about this, who told everyone. Being right is a very expensive thing to purchase with years.

There is a decent test: if a friend brought you these numbers and this timeline, what would you tell them? People are consistently wiser about other people’s situations, which is not a coincidence — they have nothing to defend.

Stopping is not failure. Refusing to look is.