Q told Bond always to have an escape plan. For entrepreneurs, the best escape plan is avoiding escalation beyond what can be repaired.

At the end of the James Bond movie “The World Is Not Enough”, James Bond asks Q if he is planning to retire soon.

Q lowers himself into a trapdoor in the floor and delivers his final piece of advice to 007:

“Now, pay attention, 007. I’ve always tried to teach you two things. First, never let them see you bleed. Second, always have an escape plan.”

This article is about having an escape plan, but not quite in the sense that you might imagine. I’m not talking about scenario planning and forecasting, having a plan B, or anything like that.

I’m talking about escalation. Or rather, how to escalate in a way that keeps an escape plan alive.

Geopolitics

Escalation is en vogue in geopolitics these days. Just look at the Iran war. Irrespective of your political position, it’s fair to say that it was easy to start this war, but it will be damn hard to end it. The war was started without having an escape plan, that is, without knowing how to de-escalate. No amount of martial rhetoric on social media or political arm-twisting behind the scenes will get the monster re-chained.

So why on Earth do politicians do such stupid things? Very often, humans do apparently “stupid” things because of biases or prejudices. Or because they get stressed out, or because they are frustrated about a petty detail.

Politicians are humans after all, just like entrepreneurs or parents. That doesn’t justify launching a pointless war, of course, but biases, prejudices, stress, and frustration can catch any human off guard, including every politician.

Entrepreneurship

Let’s leave geopolitics, as most of us have zero influence on it anyway. Instead, let’s turn to entrepreneurship. In a way, entrepreneurs are a bit like politicians: They call the shots. When things go well, everybody says it was the team’s efforts. And when things turn sour, everybody points at the entrepreneurs and calls their decisions “stupid”.

That’s a fact of life, and you can’t change it. However, you can try to avoid the obviously wrong decisions.

Hm, what is an “obviously wrong” decision then? Here are some thoughts from my life as Founder & CEO of Yonder, a B2B SaaS company.

A wrong assumption about a product’s market potential is not an obviously wrong decision. It’s better to start with a wrong assumption, test the waters, and adjust your plan rather than to do nothing.

Bad hiring decisions aren’t obviously wrong decisions. Hiring is difficult and involves lots of gut feeling, which can be flawed. Furthermore, most “bad” hiring decisions only turn out to be bad decisions after some time with your new employee.

A technical decision about software architecture that doesn’t scale infinitely isn’t an obviously wrong decision. Why would you need a scalable architecture before you have hundreds of customers? You can always change and improve the architecture later, leveraging new technologies that weren’t available when you took that original software architecture decision.

Now we discussed three examples of not-obviously-wrong decisions. So, what is obviously wrong then?

I would say 95% of all obviously wrong decisions involve (unnecessary) escalation.

Getting into an argument with your co-founder happens now and then, even in the best founding teams. If both of you are agitated and emotional, don’t add more fuel to the fire. If you feel provoked by your co-founder, don’t retaliate. Maybe he didn’t intend to to provoke you, and even if he provoked you with intent, swallow it. Because if you escalate a situation between co-founders beyond what can be repaired, you’re risking the future of your company. A startup is dead if the co-founders are in serious conflict.

Customers not paying invoices on time is a standard thing nowadays, unfortunately. But if you’re confronted with heavily overdue invoices, don’t start debt collection or a legal case. Don’t interrupt service. Because if you do such things, the customer relationship might get damaged beyond repair. And a startup without customers is dead, too.

Some Homework for Yourself

There would be plenty of other examples, but that’s not the point of this article. How can we build an escape plan into situations that run the danger of escalation?

One approach is to de-escalate when something boils over. Say you’re sorry, ask how you can contribute to get back on a constructive path. It always takes two to fight, and somebody has to step back first. That somebody could be you.

A much better approach is to avoid starting an escalation in the first place. Bite your tongue before replying in a heated discussion. Think twice if the other person really wanted to insult you, or if you just felt insulted (yes, that’s one of the biases I mentioned above). Never say something you cannot roll back.

Yes, that’s hard. It’s especially hard for entrepreneurs who are usually alpha types and used to calling the shots. But give it a try. Develop a sense for situations that could easily escalate, and actively start avoiding unnecessary escalations.

Your true escape plan is when you never need it, because you don’t get yourself into situations that are beyond repair.