The Entrepreneurship Industry Needs More ‘Quits’ – Here’s Why”

By Jeffrey Mangus, CEO, Mangus Media Group

There isn’t any doubt I have failed at more things in my life than I can count

Oh hell, who am I kidding? I remember every single fail.

Each failure has shaped me, making me who I am, and each failure has revealed more about myself than I expected.

Yet, I’m here to tell you, 2017 topped them all.

In 2017, surviving five amputations and sepsis, after losing my limb, everyone saw me at my lowest, darkest point.

On the outside, it was a brutal onslaught of a failed man and an assault on my life.

But that failed moment of helpless despair was my shining moment, a reckoning that sent the trajectory game-changer of my life.

I discovered I wanted to be a writer.

Since that moment, I’ve spent ten years ghostwriting business memoirs, helping founders, CEOs, and visionaries turn their raw journeys into books that inspire.

And in that time, I’ve heard countless stories of triumph, but I’ve also seen the massive fails where heroes are born.

Over and over: the real heroes aren’t the ones who “never quit.” They’re the ones who knew when to quit—and did it boldly.

As someone who’s coached authors, inventors, and startup leaders through books, concepts and their highs and lows, I believe the entrepreneurship industry is overdue for a reckoning.

We need more smart quits.

Not failures, but as essential acts of brave self-preservation and growth.

Let me explain why.

First, let’s dispel the myth that quitting is a sign of weakness. Many think quitting shows no guts or grit.

It’s not.

In our hustle culture echo chamber—fueled by TED Talks, LinkedIn rants, and venture capital lore—we’re bombarded with mantras like “fail fast” or “pivot or perish.”

But quitting?

That’s a dirty word we whisper, if we say it at all.

As a CEO and lead ghostwriter, I’ve seen this mindset trap entrepreneurs in toxic cycles.

Sometimes, quitting is the smart move necessary for growth.

One client, a tech founder I’ll call Alex, poured five years into a SaaS platform that promised to revolutionize remote work. He raised seed funding, built a team, and hit every milestone—except profitability.

Burnout crept in, relationships were torn, and his health tanked. But quitting for him was admitting defeat in an industry that idolizes old persistence.

When he finally pulled the plug, it wasn’t the end; it was his rebirth.

He walked away with clarity about his true passions, pivoted to consulting, and scaled a new venture to seven figures in under two years.

After, MMG helped him write a book that went #1 bestseller.

Smart quitting peels away the ego-driven illusion that success means grinding through misery.

This brings me to the personal side of quitting.

No one wants to talk about this openly as if It’s almost voodoo. Trust me, no one has a voodoo doll sticking you with pin by quitting.

Entrepreneurship isn’t just about building businesses; it’s a mirror to your inner world.

Quitting, often brings you look at yourself in a different way, that puts you on a better path.

In my work with authors, I’ve helped them unpack the “onion layers” of self-perception—surface ego, hidden fears, core beliefs, and transcendent purpose.

Smart Quitting forces you to confront these layers head-on.

Take my path: after a stint in Hollywood chasing my dream of being a rockstar, I quit from my dreams, because of rejection of others. That quit was gut-wrenching, but it revealed my fear of instability, rooted in my reliance on others.

By quitting, I peeled back those scars and rediscovered my love for storytelling—not in music or song, but in writing business memoirs.

Today, as CEO of Mangus Media Group, I’ve ghostwritten forty books, including bestsellers for game-changing leaders.

Quitting Hollywood didn’t break me; it built the foundation for everything that followed.

Today’s industry pushes the idea that relentless hustle equals success, but data tells a different story.

According to a 2023 study by the National Institute of Mental Health, entrepreneurs are twice as likely to experience depression as the general population, with burnout affecting over 70% in recent surveys from Startup Grind.

Why?

Because we glorify “overnight successes” that took a decade of quiet quits and restarts.

Consider Reed Hastings, who quit his first software company before founding Netflix, or Sara Blakely, who walked away from door-to-door sales gigs to invent Spanx.

Those quits weren’t detours; they were deliberate onion peels, shedding misaligned motivations for something intrinsic and sustainable.

Encouraging more quits could transform the ecosystem.

For starters, it would normalize mental health breaks. Venture capitalists and incubators should fund “quit sabbaticals”—time for founders to reflect without shame.

Imagine pitch decks that include a “quit history” section, highlighting lessons from walk-aways.

In my ghostwriting sessions, clients often reveal that their biggest breakthroughs came after they quit, when they questioned their “why.”

Smart Quits foster resilience not through endurance, but through reinvention.

I’m confident many critics will argue that more quits would lead to chaos—flaky founders abandoning commitments.

But that’s a straw man.

Strategic quitting isn’t impulsive; it’s informed decisions based on deep introspection of what’s best for us.

It’s saying no to ventures that erode your soul so you can say yes to ones that ignite it.

Clinging to sinking ships wastes talent in an era of AI disruptions and economic volatility.

We need entrepreneurs who quit bad fits early, freeing resources for bolder pursuits.

As I wrap up my latest book project—a memoir on failure’s motivational alchemy—I’m convinced:

The entrepreneurship industry thrives when we celebrate quits as courageous pivots.

To my fellow founders, investors, and dreamers: next time you’re white-knuckling a failing venture, ask yourself—what layer of yourself is this revealing?

Quit if it doesn’t align.

You’ll emerge stronger, more motivated, and ready to scale something real.

After all, sometimes the bravest move is to walk away, in business as in life.

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