Kate Gregory  has amazing business sense and is able to share it with great clarity which always has me in awe. Kate wrote a blog post yesterday about what she calls Fail Fast - basically about the value of trying something out and getting it over quickly if it's going to fail rather than debating the possibilities endlessly or pursuing the project in a way that you won't find the point of failure until pretty far into the game. I have actually used this theory in my pre-marital days of dating. You know --- the totally flaming hot prospect that fizzles fast. "Damned good thing that happened sooner than later, but it was fun while it lasted!" I'd say.

I have a client who also subscribes to this philosophy that has been a key to his company's success. He would rather invest in something and try it out than wonder forever if it will work or not. The odds work out for him because for every time this causes a loss for him, there are many gains.

I definitely subscribe to this myself. Usually I try to identify the hardest parts of a project and see if I can't work them out first, before I make any larger scale commitment or planning effort. Of course, you can't let your ego get in the way of this as I did with my Virtual Earth Ink application. I was determined not to give up until I had exhausted every possible idea I had to get it to work.

Go read Kate's post if you do any business decision making and I would also recommend Michael Kaplan's thoughtful response to Kate's post as a chaser.