When a rocket launches into space, it needs to reach a point where it can break through gravity, known as escape velocity.

Once the ship reaches that point, gravity is too weak to pull the ship back down to earth. It can get through the earth’s atmosphere on its own.

In business, particularly early stage tech startups, entrepreneurs use this idea of escape velocity to describe a point when a business can sustain itself through growth. It has reached product market fit, and customers tell other people about it. Before that point, a startup is fragile; without product and growth efforts, it will fail.

This dynamic affects outcomes you don’t want as well. A sign of maturity is recognizing early signs a situation is getting out of hand, and nipping it in the bud. If your business is experiencing financial setbacks, exercise discipline sooner rather than later; don’t borrow from the future. You don’t want to reach the point of no return—its own form of escape velocity—to try to turn around.

You can take this idea and apply it far beyond business as well.