Don't drop the basket if it's full of eggs. Sometimes you need a back-up plan.
Honda said after Valentino Rossi left at the end of 2003 that they would make a better motorcycle in order to beat the man who had the temerity to leave HRC for Yamaha, which had hardly won much in ages.
It was very bold and very Honda; exactly what we like about them. Trouble is, Valentino went and won the first race of the next season, proceeding to a tally of nine wins from seventeen races that year, nearly equalling the eleven wins that Yamaha had got from the previous four seasons.
HRC, and indeed us with a perspective on the sport, are still reeling.