It’s apparent that we all unconsciously attribute a certain value to the time we take off from our schedules to hang out with the people that we decide to hang out with. This usually becomes more important when it comes to establishing close relationships or potential commitments. Here’s why, in several instances, I think that the “if you must fail, fail quickly” concept should be implemented as much in relationships as in business.

Evaluating the potential 

When it comes to initially evaluating a potential long-term companion, the aforementioned added value is mainly derived from an attempt to assess the likeliness of that person’s existing mental, physical, intellectual, cultural and any other influential assets to intertwine with one’s own in a way for both individuals to become major contributors to numerous aspects of each other’s lives in the long-run. This exercice is commonly known as “getting to know each other” and is typically repeated several times for the purpose of effectively exchanging all major details about one another.

Perceiving incompatibilities

As this continuous activity is performed, one of the individuals or both might be led to believe that, due to some or several contributing factors, the envisioned intertwinement does not seem likely to happen which consequently eliminates the main basis for spending time with one another. This is commonly described as the “turn-off” and could be due to numerous perceivable incompatibilities such as conflicts in opinions, interests, wishes, beliefs, morals, visions, ambitions, level of education, open-mindedness or perhaps even in the level of physical or spiritual bonding efforts that have been made thus far…

Relinquishing the efforts  

When it seems apparent to one or both individuals, that the other just might not be compatible for the purposes of the relationship, this realization eliminates most of the factors that initially constituted the basis for spending time with one another and thus, more likely than not, greatly reduces if not eliminates most of the future amount of time spent with one another, something commonly reffered to as “cutting it off”, and for good reasons.

As per one of Ambarish Gupta’s (CEO & Co-Founder at Knowlarity Communications) popular startup tips – “if you must fail, fail quickly and start all over again.” – I truly believe that the same concept can and should be implemented to relationships and friendships mainly with the previously mentioned intents, so as to quickly move on to the best fit.