Never Too Big

Let's get something straight, nothing is too big to fail. Nothing. Not Bank of American, not Chrysler, not the European Union.

It wasn't too many years ago that Russia failed. At the time no one made the argument that Russia was too big to fail. It just failed. And we all watched. And somehow the world kept turning.

You see, when things fail it doesn't mean that everything that is associated with that entity disappears suddenly. It means that the structure that previously organized that entity no longer exists. The day after a failure the search for a new structure begins. Sometimes this new structure is very similar, sometimes not. But rest assured that people will quickly seize the opportunity to reorganize the assets that still exist.

The process of reorganizing assets tends to happen quickly. Smaller, more portable assets find homes almost immediately. While messier chunks, such as people, may take a bit longer. But assets do not disappear or cease to function for long. Enterprising entrepreneurs (at least in free market societies) find uses for the idle and quickly start down new paths toward success.

This is a good process. This allows the strong to survive and the weak to stop wasting our time, energy, and money. So embrace failure. The sooner the better. Because pretending there is another way out just prolongs the pain.