Predicting Success: Evidence-Based Strategies to Hire the Right People and Build the Best Team

Conclusion: How to Finish

Great is the art of the beginning, but greater the art is of ending.

—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

REMEMBER THAT PHOTO PROJECT YOU UNDERTOOK, that vast undertaking you planned, to digitize every print from every album in your house for—you know, the one you got to 1977 in? What about the one where you were going to refinish the basement floor to look like a chessboard, for which you spent $122 on those cans of black and white paint you're forever tripping over in the laundry room? And what of the vegetable garden you started digging out behind the garage three summers ago?

Rotten tomatoes, the lot of them.

Everyone knows it's a far sight easier to start a project than it is to finish one. Your chest thrumming with enthusiasm, your head spilling over with visions of the pitch-perfect end product, it's a sincere rush to dive into a new venture. You sketch out the plan, you buy the supplies, you take the first exhilarating steps into its accomplishment.

But then something shiny captures your attention and, next thing you know, your enthusiasm has waned and you've abandoned your lofty pursuits (and all of the expensive supplies you bought in aid of them) in favor of something else altogether.

There are dozens of tips at the ready offered by well-meaning individuals who'd like to help you see through what you started. From advice about estimating your resources smartly, budgeting your time realistically, and sidestepping your perfectionist tendencies mindfully, ...