If you have an apple cart in the market square and you’re not doing well, it’s natural to feel frustrated. What a lot of people do when they’re in that situation is make a list of everything they’re doing right, look at that list, and then say “I don’t understand, I’m doing everything right! Why isn’t anyone buying my apples?”
If you make a list of the things you’re doing right, you aren’t going to find problems. Obviously.
You might not even be doing anything wrong! But that doesn’t mean that you can’t do different things with more success. Maybe you have the best apples in the county and you’re a great salesperson with awesome prices. But maybe you live in a part of the world where everyone has apple trees in their yard and so they just don’t need yours. In other words, it might just be the market itself – and you’re in the wrong one.
The point is, listen to what the market tells you. Don’t be stubborn. If you’re trying to sell apples and no one is buying them, then you need to change something. You need to sell something else, or you need to sell somewhere else, or you need to change how you’re selling. But trying to justify how you “should” already be successful isn’t going to make you a dollar.
The Opportunity Machine 