Take the L Fast
Kill a failing bet the moment you know, give the money back, and feel proud you acted quickly.
Rubin treats a fast, clean loss as a win for the operator who took it. The discipline: when you know a bet won't work, end it immediately, return capital, and don't carry embarrassment. The opposite mentality — protecting your record — is how you become irrelevant. He frames mistakes as motivating, and pairs the fast kill with a 'never reflect, always think we've done nothing yet' restlessness.
- The moment you know it won't work, stop — don't let a known loser run on ego.
- Return outside capital rather than spending it down to save face.
- A fast loss is a point of pride, not embarrassment.
- Acknowledge, fix, move — 'when we make a mistake, we acknowledge it, we fix it, we're right on it.'
Fanatics raised $100M from outside investors for an NFT business in 2021. Within four months Rubin knew it wouldn't work, gave investors their money back, and counts it as a 'fast great L' he was proud to take quickly.
Source · VIDEO
Michael Rubin on Building Fanatics Into a Billion-Dollar Empire (Boardroom cover story)