We recently lost a major client right after starting our exit runway, and my leadership team is panicking and wants to change our entire market strategy. How do we separate this bad outcome from our actual decision quality so we stay focused on our long-term exit plan?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Losing a major client during your exit runway is incredibly frustrating, but it is critical that your leadership team does not panic and abandon your long-term strategy. In business, as in poker, you can make a great decision and still get a bad result due to factors beyond your control. This is the difference between decision quality and outcome quality. When a setback occurs, resist the urge to immediately rewrite your V/TO®. Instead, use your Level 10 Meeting™ to run an objective autopsy on the situation. Ask your team to take inventory of the evidence behind your original decision, separating bad luck from poor execution. This process prevents you from falling into the trap of resulting, where you judge the quality of a past decision solely by its outcome. Quantify your confidence in your current strategic direction by expressing your market assumptions as probabilities rather than absolutes. By focusing on decision quality, you keep your leadership team aligned, calm, and committed to the long-term runway, showing buyers that your business operates on disciplined logic rather than emotional reactions.