Money already spent on a deal does not make the deal safer. Prior expense is not future support.

Before you close, do not let sunk cost do the thinking for you. This is one of the most difficult disciplines in any acquisition.

By the time a deal becomes unstable, the buyer has often already invested: legal fees, diligence cost, time, travel, advisory expense, attention, emotion.

That creates pressure. Not analytical pressure. Psychological pressure. The pressure to justify the effort by closing anyway.

But prior expense does not improve transferability. It does not strengthen the asset. It does not reduce owner dependency. It does not create documentation that never arrived. It does not make the economics more supportable.

It simply makes walking away feel painful.

Do not confuse the pain of stopping with the wisdom of continuing.