It’s not unheard of for us to jump into something with two feet and totally commit to it - only to discover some time later that things aren’t working out exactly as we planned and we need to take some remedial action.
On your wedding day, for example, you don’t imagine you’re going to find yourself a few years later making an appointment for couples therapy. When you drive off the lot in your fabulous new car, you don’t imagine that in a year you’re going to be cursing the day you got suckered in to buying it.
When you start up a business, you can also find yourself some time down the road at a point you could never have imagined on the day you launched.
In a bad marriage you have the option of divorce. The car you hate, you can sell. In business, there’s also a single word for making radical change. That word is “pivot.” “Pivoting” a business is not an admission of failure. It’s an acknowledgement of the difference between a business plan and reality. Aileen's lunch guests have recent experiences in pivoting their businesses.