Rules are for when you're tired. Breaking them is for when you're sure

I have a rule about discounts.

We don't do them.

I've also broken it. Which makes me either flexible or a hypocrite, depending on the day you ask.

What rules are actually for

Over the years I've collected a few rules. "Service money is patient money." "Every discount comes back as scope." "Your best investor is a client who pays at 30 days." And, since last year, "support doesn't include development".

They sound wise. They're not. They're scar tissue.

Each one exists because at some point I made the opposite decision and paid for it. The rule is just the note I left for my future self so he doesn't have to learn it twice.

And here's the thing about my future self. He's usually tired.

He's answering a client at midnight. He wants the conversation to end. He's about to say "fine, we'll include it" because it's easier than explaining why not.

That's who the rules are for. Not the clear-headed version of me who wrote them. The worn-out one who needs to say no without having to think.

A rule is a decision you made when you were rested, so you don't have to make it again when you're not.

So when do you break one?

In 2022 we made our first offer for what would become PagoCRM. It came with a discount. Against my own rule.

I don't regret it. But I've thought a lot about why it felt different from all the times I nearly caved and didn't.

My answer, so far: you break a rule when you're sure, not when you're tired. And those two feel surprisingly similar from the inside.

The tired version sounds like "it's just this once" and "it's not worth the argument". The sure version sounds like "I know exactly what I'm buying with this exception, and I'd make the same call tomorrow morning".

Tomorrow morning is the test I trust most. That's also what a partner is for. Yeray looks at my decisions without my tiredness attached to them. Not all of them pass.

Three questions before the exception

When I'm tempted to break one of my own rules, I try to ask myself a few things. Not a framework. Just a sanity check.

• Would I make this call if I'd slept eight hours?
• Can I say in one sentence what I get in return?
• Would I be comfortable if it became the new rule?

If the answer to the last one is no, it's probably not an exception. It's a leak.

Because that's the risk. Rules rarely break in one dramatic moment. They erode. One "just this once" at a time, until you look up and realise the rule is still written down but nobody follows it. You included.

Freedom includes changing your mind

We run Foxnice without investors. Nobody can force me to keep a rule, and nobody can force me to break one. That's part of the freedom.

But it also means nobody stops me from being sloppy. The only check is us.

So I'd rather have rules that I break rarely and on purpose than rules I never break because I'm afraid of looking inconsistent. Rigidity isn't discipline. It's just another way of not thinking.

I still don't do discounts.

Unless I'm sure. And unless it's morning.

P.S. If I ever offer you a deal in the middle of the night, wait for the email I send after breakfast.