We’ve all got commitment issues

Imagine for a moment that you’re dating someone you really like. You’ve been together for six months, and so far, so good. You’re excited about your future together. 

Now imagine a fairy swoops in and says it’s time for you to commit to being with this person for the next 10 years. What would you say? Certainly if you’re dating Christian Bale or Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises (just me?), you’d say yes. But anyone else? That would feel like a lot of pressure to put on a new relationship.

That’s exactly what’s happening when a new business signs a lease. No wonder the typical five to ten-year lease terms can feel really intimidating.

Turns out, people with advanced degrees have identified multiple reasons why new business owners may struggle to get comfortable with the commitment of a brick and mortar lease:

👁️ Future visibility: we can only “see” about 12–24 months ahead*

Unfortunately for most of us, it’s damn near impossible to envision the future with any accuracy beyond a year or two. That’s why ancient Greeks trekked to Delphi and people nowadays pay $85 for clairvoyant sessions. 

With our limited visibility, it can be really uncomfortable to make long term commitments — especially to something (like a new business) that itself is new and uncertain. 

When we start work with new retailers in Dream Space, it’s clear that everyone has thought a lot about what the next year or two of their lives will look like as they get their businesses open and begin operations. It’s very rare that anyone has thought much about the years beyond that, aka years two through five on a lease term. This is not because they don't want to, it's the simple fact that unless you already know the path (like finding your bathroom in the middle of the night), all you see is pitch black.

🌀 Seven year cycles: we change meaningfully every 7 years**

Think about yourself at age 7, then 14, 21, 28, 35, 42… I’ll stop here, because I’m creeping up on 45. When you think back, where you were living? What you were doing all day long? Who you were with? Were your jeans low-rise or skinny leg or high-waisted? Looking back on our lives at each of these ages, it’s hard not to see how seven years can contain a LOT of change.  

Since seven years is right in the pocket of typical lease term lengths -- most being five or ten years long -- we can be pretty certain that a whole lot is going to change over that period of time. So much like the lyrics of Seven my favorite Prince song, trying to make commitments that far into the future feels weird and confusing. 

🚧 Removal of optionality: we really, really like the ability to choose our own adventures***

Signing a retail lease means committing to running your business in a certain place for many years. What happens if your spouse gets a job offer in London? What if your daughter is the next Taylor Swift, and you need to move to Nashville? What if your mom gets sick? What if you lose interest? All good questions. 

We don’t know what’s going to happen in the future or how we’ll feel about it, but we do know that a commercial lease is truly the ol’ ball and chain. That being said, you should keep in mind that you’ll never be imprisoned (unless you and your business are actually in prison), so there is always a way out…it just won’t be free or easy.

〰️

So, no, you’re not crazy if a five or ten year commitment to a new business feels unnatural. Thanks to the researchers who probably spent ten years proving it, we know your instincts are dead on.

Most first-time retailers do it anyway — for reasons more fully examined here, it almost always makes the most business sense. But that’s not all.

 😵‍💫 Getting past the vertigo is a product of a few things:

• A burning belief in the opportunity 
• The confidence that you’re the one to make it happen 
• An inability (demonstrated over many months or years) to shake both of the above 

And most powerfully...a Powerhouse Business Plan -- the most important product of Dream Space for two reasons: 

️⚡️First, working through all the details to define your real estate criteria makes signing a long term lease on the right space feel like the next natural step in the process. 

️⚡️Second, the business planning process itself is what creates overarching confidence, because it literally forces you to look beyond 24 months and confront many unknowns.

🔮 When you’ve cited the data, articulated each detail, and mathed all the math, your future success is visible in black and white. You’re excited for your next era, and you know that this path is the one you want. 

*Suddendorf, T. & Corballis, M. (2007). “The evolution of foresight.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

**Armstrong, T. (2012). "The stages of life according to Rudolf Steiner." Institute for Learning. 

***iResearchNet. (2025). "Risk Avoidance and Perception." Behavioral Psychology in Business