” They often tell me that, knowing what they now know, they would never have brought it out in the first place. My advice to them is always the same: “Kill it.” One of the smartest things a com- pany can do with a part of the business that is not working, and which has no future, is to discontinue it as quickly as possible. This applies to products, services, processes, methods of sale or advertis- ing, investments, or any other area of activity that consumes time, money, or emotional energy. ■ HOLD YOUR OWN FEET TO THE FIRE If there is anything in your life or your work that you wouldn’t get into today, knowing what you now know, it is an excellent candidate for creative abandonment, for being discontinued altogether. Is there any relationship in your life—personal or business—
spent-out parents to buy another plaything for their already toy-glutted children. What could the toy companies possibly do to produce that unlikely behavior? Some have tried greatly increased advertising campaigns, others have reduced prices dur- ing the slack period, but neither of those standard sales devices has proved success- ful. Both tactics are costly, and have been ineffective in increasing sales to desired levels. Parents are simply not in a toy-buying mood, and the influences of advertis- ing or reduced expense are not enough to shake that stony resistance. Certain large toy manufacturers, however, think they have found a solution. It's an ingenious one, involving no more than a normal advertising expense and an un- derstanding of the powerful pull of the need for consistency. My first hint of the way the toy companies' strategy worked came after I fell for it and then, in true patsy form, fell for it again. It was January, and I was in the town's largest toy store
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