You built something from nothing and somewhere along the way, you became "the person who does this." Your identity fused with your company, your role, your expertise. That merger felt like commitment. It was a trap.
The sunk cost dilemma runs deeper than money or time. It's about who you've become and the terrifying question of who you'd be without it. Founders hold onto failing strategies, dead partnerships, and outdated business models not because the data supports it, but because walking away means admitting the person they built themselves into no longer fits.
Ralph Brewer has guided thousands through identity collapse and reinvention. As the founder of Help For Men and author of REBUILD, he's watched people cling to versions of themselves that stopped working years ago. His take: the fastest path forward requires burning down who you were.
This episode tears apart the connection between founder identity and business strategy, exploring why the best pivots start with killing your professional self-image, how survivorship bias poisons the "never quit" narrative, and what peer community actually does for founders stuck in the sunk cost trap.
Keywords: sunk cost fallacy, founder identity, knowing when to quit, entrepreneurship perseverance, business pivot, founder burnout, startup exit, Ralph Brewer, identity crisis entrepreneurs, founder mental health
