The sunk cost fallacy isn’t just about economics — it’s also about identity.

Quitting doesn’t always mean failure. There is wisdom in recognizing when persistence has become the obstacle.

You are not your projects — it is important to separate self from outcome.

“Winners never quit and quitters never win” goes the famous motivational quote attributed to legendary football coach Vince Lombardi. It’s a great expression of our culture’s veneration of grit and persistence: We celebrate never giving up, we admire people who pushed through when others would have quit. And this makes sense. Persistence is admirable and it is essential for overcoming many of the challenges we face in life. But as the Greek philosopher Aristotle saw 2000 years ago, actions pushed to their extreme turn into vice.

There is a famous fable about the Scottish king Robert the Bruce. Robert had gone into battle six times with the English, and lost each time. After his sixth defeat, he took refuge in a cave, ready to abandon his cause. And there he watched a spider try to anchor its web to the cave wall. The spider tried and failed again and again – six times, in fact – before finally succeeding on the seventh attempt.

After bearing witness to this anthropomorphized life lesson, the Bruce decided to return to the fight, winning independence for the Scots – on the seventh attempt.

This story has come back to me many times over the years. In my twenties, I recalled it when struggling to build my first company; a few years later, it inspired me again when I set out to reboot after being fired from my second........

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