My consulting business was growing, with offices in the United States and overseas and a sizable staff. I felt confident about what came next and borrowed money to expand. When business began to fall, I treated it as a temporary problem and kept borrowing.
The downturn became much more serious than I had admitted. Within months, I had to lay off most of the employees. Income nearly disappeared, while the loans still had to be repaid. The confidence that had made expansion feel reasonable was no help in meeting those responsibilities.
I remember feeling defeated and crying from helplessness. Friends and relatives suggested that I take a job again. I could understand why. I chose to keep trying to rebuild. The debt was still there, and so was the effect of my decisions on the people who had worked with me.
I needed to look at what remained and what the downturn had exposed. Continuing with the same assumptions would leave me responding to the business I expected to have instead of the one in front of me.
The following years were difficult. I eventually repaid the loans and rebuilt the business. I do not want that outcome to hide the earlier mistake. I had kept acting on confidence in growth after there was reason to question it.
If your situation has changed, revisit the assumption on which the next decision depends. What was true when you made the original plan, and what is true now? The difference deserves attention before you ask more people, time or money to support the same expectation.