Life Isn’t Knights on Horseback. It’s a Fight for a Knife in the Mud. October 26, 2026
In the HBO series Succession, media mogul Logan Roy tells his children that life isn’t knights on horseback. “It’s a fight for a knife in the mud.” Logan was a monster in many ways, but on that point he understood something every small business owner learns sooner or later. There are seemingly few fair fights, no referee, and nobody is coming to rescue you. It’s not a perfect comparison to running a business, but it’s close enough. You win by outlasting the other guy in the mud, and grabbing the knife when you can.
When you start a business, you picture the shining version: a great product or service, loyal customers, a handshake deal that lasts forever. Then reality arrives. Your biggest client walks away with no warning. A vendor raises prices overnight. A competitor opens down the street and undercuts you. Customers who used to pay in 30 days now take 90. The landlord raises the rent. A key employee quits during your busiest month, and an unexpected repair eats your profit for the quarter. None of that shows up in the business plan. I’ve spent more than 42 years running a business, and I can tell you the mud is re-al. Here’s what I’ve learned about fighting in it.
First, cash is the knife. Profits on paper don’t pay rent, payroll or suppliers. The busi-nesses that survive bad years are the ones that kept cash on hand during good ones. Watch where your money is tied up, whether it’s unpaid invoices, equipment you don’t need, employees who don’t pull their weight or inventory sitting in the warehouse. Col-lect what you’re owed, and don’t be shy about asking for it. If something isn’t earning its keep, turn it back into cash. A smaller sure thing usually beats a bigger maybe.
Second, speed beats perfection. Big companies hold meetings. Small businesses make decisions. Your advantage is that you can say yes on a phone call, change direction in an afternoon and solve a customer’s problem before a corporate competitor finishes scheduling a call. When an opportunity appears, the person who acts first usually wins. Hesitation is a luxury small businesses can’t afford.
Third, relationships matter more than contracts. A contract tells you what happens when things go wrong. A relationship keeps things from going wrong in the first place. The customer who trusts you will call you first and forgive you when you slip up. The supplier who likes working with you will hold product for you, extend terms in a tight month, and tell you about opportunities before anyone else hears about them. A reputation built over years is worth more than any marketing budget.
Fourth, don’t fall in love with your product. Owners get emotionally attached to the thing they built, the way they’ve always done it or the customer who’s been around forever but no longer pays. The market doesn’t care. If a product or service stops selling, cut it. If your market is shrinking, find one that’s growing. Logan Roy never confused sentiment with strategy and neither should you.
Fifth, expect to get knocked down. Every business owner I know has a story about a deal that blew up, a customer who went bankrupt owing them money, or a year when every-thing went wrong. What separates survivors from casualties isn’t avoiding those hits. It’s getting back up, wiping off the mud and reaching for the knife again. None of this is pret-ty, but there’s a raw honesty to it. Small business rewards people who are willing to work harder, move faster and take hits that would send corporate managers looking for a new job. The knights on horseback make for good stories. The people fighting in the mud are the small business owners still standing at the end.
Merchandise USA has been buying closeout inventory and liquidating excess merchan-dise for more than 42 years. We purchase closeout toys, discontinued housewares, overstock pet products, lawn and garden closeouts, wholesale novelty closeouts, close-out juvenile products, name brand closeouts, and dozens of other categories from busi-nesses of every size across the country. If you’re shutting down a business, downsizing warehouse space and sitting on more inventory than you can move, or keen to clean out an entire 3PL, we have the wholesale relationships and distribution reach to get your in-ventory off your hands fast and put cash in your pocket.
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