Chapter 5: Not Why, But HOW I Decided to Close

Update: Is Abeego closing? TBD. Read my update here.

CHAPTER 5

Why are you really closing?

We've been trained to seek stories of trauma, a sad country song, the downward spiral. It’s especially true when a business closes and an entrepreneur ultimately “fails” and is forced to fully expose themselves.

It’s weird. 

But I don’t think that’s what you really want. I think you want to know how a powerful CEO, the innovator of an entire category, a leader of industry makes a wicked smart business decision because at the end of the day you all are wrestling with your own decisions. 

I think the real question is: “How did you decide to close?”

My decisions intersect logic and inspiration. I see logic and inspiration as two sides of the same coin. My last three emails shared the trends I clearly saw that helped me make the logical decision to close Abeego. 

Here’s how I found the inspiration. 

Eighteen months ago I took my first cold dip. After a few years of getting my ass handed to me business-wise (thanks Covid) I found myself vehemently opposed to taking risks. I knew I needed to find a way to restore the natural risk-taker in me and I decided cold dipping was the quickest way to rewire my brain. Here’s why: Cold dipping is the worst! 

Quieting the shrill cry that if you take one more step into the icy water you’ll surely die takes determination. With every dip, I’d repeat, “This is hard. I can do hard things and it won’t kill me.” I took that “risk” once a week until the part of my brain that thought it wasn’t a risk worth taking quieted to a whisper and now I can confidently take risks again. 

During the decision  period I consulted with a plethora of mentors, coaches, entrepreneurs and friends. A wise mentor gave me an exercise to determine when I make a decision, what do  I decide for? Do I decide for money, family, freedom, safety? 

I was told to plot every life altering decision I’ve ever made on a timeline, write down the two choices I had and then think about what I was deciding for when I made the decision. It turns out I decide for happiness. Any time I’ve made a major pivot I simply wasn’t happy any more and guess what, Abeego was fine but I wasn’t happy anymore.

It took two years to make the decision to close Abeego. I did the research, made the spreadsheets, am halfway through The Pivot Year, cold dipped, had my Tarot cards read and labored over it every waking and sleepless hour. And in the end I decided to be happy and here we are.  

Abeego is closing. It’s a conscious decision and I’m happy about it.

Toni Desrosiers
Founder & Inventor