Know When to Fold 'Em

Among the many tunes made famous by legendary country music crooner Kenny Rogers, few are as well known as the Don Schlitz ditty "The Gambler." The singer recounts his meeting, during an overnight train trip, with a gamblin' man who shares some rules for living gleaned from his long life of card games. Over the course of the song, it becomes clear that the gambler prioritizes having an exit strategy.

One nugget of his wisdom is that the "secret to survivin' is knowing what to throw away," a point reiterated when the gambler advises the importance of knowing "when to fold 'em" and "when to walk away." As anyone who has ever watched a gambling movie of any sort knows, the hero almost always loses everything, at least temporarily, because he (or she) doesn't know when to quit. Sometimes you just have to cut your losses and get out.

In the parlance of business, an expense committed to a project that can't be recovered if the project is abandoned is known as a sunk cost. Any sound business plan takes into account the possibility of sunk costs along the road to success, and smart managers write in coverage for such losses even when they're convinced that a given proposal is a can't-miss sure thing. You can't be too cautious.

That's one benefit of training with TestOut Continuing Education under our monthly subscription model. Plunking down a single upfront sum to purchase your training might sound more appealing than taking on the accountability of a monthly payment plan. Life is unpredictable, however, and there's no knowing when a change in circumstances might require you to cancel your certification ambitions altogether, or at least put them on hold.

By going month-to-month, in the event that you have to "walk away," the only sunk cost is what you've already spent. Instead of losing the total outlay required to purchase a complete training package, you can simply cancel your subscription and only be out the money that's already been billed.

We think that our IT certification training is the best you can find anywhere, and that anyone who is committed and consistent will succeed in completing the training and getting certified. Should you ever stumble into a situation where there's no other option except to leave the job undone, however, the monthly subscription plan is a good way of minimizing the damage to your pocketbook. The gambler, and also Mr. Rogers, would doubtless approve.