Ed Weeks identifies three ways projects stall: money arriving late and creating disagreement about terms, nothing arriving after you've already spent credibility, or waiting indefinitely for someone else to decide if the project lives. Without a written path back to a decision, you lose time and the ability to explain what went wrong.
The 4th question is, what happens if progress stops? Without that answer, the owner can be parked in a process with no written path back to a decision. An unclear route can cost the owner time, credibility, and the ability to explain the opportunity cleanly. The first failure mode is money showing up after the fact. Then everyone remembers the original conversation a little differently. The second failure mode is nothing showing up, even though reputation was already spent. A stalled process is not neutral when nobody has agreed who is responsible for bringing it back. The owner made the connection, opened the door, and now has no clean way to explain what happened next. The 3rd failure mode is the process stalling. The owner is parked, waiting for someone else to decide whether the process is still alive.
