Once upon a time, when I was 19 years old and working as a technical advisor for the food company Rank Hovis McDougall, I spent a few days staying with my father in Newcastle. The weather was miserable, the nights drew in early and I was on my own. On the Friday night, I decided to go dancing at a place about which I had heard much: the popular Mayfair Ballroom on Newgate Street. I dressed up and drove down into the city centre – but when I got there, I couldn’t find a parking space. Round the block I drove, again and again. I kept passing the Mayfair Ballroom with its lights blazing, music blaring and people thronging outside, but I couldn’t find anywhere to park. I was going round and round, and getting nowhere. Tired and fed up, I eventually decided that I might as well give up and go home again.

Life and business life can be like this. You strive to do your best and drive your company forward. However the motto, “If at first you don’t succeed…” doesn’t ring true. Instead, you find yourself seizing the initiative, taking that leap, putting all that effort in – and driving round in circles.

If you are doing your best and getting nowhere, at what point should you write off your losses and simply give up?

Are you doing what you’ve always done and expecting a different result?  It takes courage to break the cycle, to step out and to do something different or new.  One manufacturing company with which I work was satisfied with its direct mail marketing programme. When someone pointed out that the company had not tried marketing its services online, the CEO argued that there was no need for change because the direct mail was going well. However when the company tested the water with Google Adwords, it discovered a set of new customers.  The direct marketing programme is still in place and is working as well as ever – but now it only accounts for half of the new customers brought in each month.

Four steps to breaking free from circles:

• What are you doing because you have “always done it that way”? Make a list.
• How are other people in your industry, and other people in other industries, doing the same things differently? Find out.
• Try something new. Apply a test and measure approach to see if what you are proposing produces the results that you expect..
• Listen to your gut. What should your next step be?

As for my frustrated night out at the Mayfair Ballroom in Newcastle: what became of it? Well, it goes to show that sometimes, stubborn perseverance pays off. I drove past the busy ballroom one last time before setting my course for home. Just as I reached the end of Newgate Street, the car parked at the very end of the road suddenly revved up and drove away. I braked hard, and pulled in.

That night at the dance, I met my future wife. She was wearing a short, green dress and standing on the other side of the ballroom; in time-honoured fashion, the room stood still. We married five months later.

If you are going round in circles, consider holding tight – and holding out for the bigger win.