4 Lessons on Quitting(And Sticking) from Seth Godin’s “The Dip”
Two days ago I bought Seth Godin’s The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick). After the first read — here are the few basic concepts of the book explained through in my words.
The basic proposition is this:
In every activity you do there is “A Dip”, an obstacle to overcome, a challenge to conquer, work to do. And whatever stands at the end of that dip is what separates success form failure. There are three situations that happen.
The Cliff
That’s when after all the hard work, struggle and challenges that you’ve endured, everything crumbles. The project fails, the market ignores you and/or you get fired from the job.
The Cul-de-sac
“Cul-De-Sac” is french for “Dead end”. It’s when the weeks, months or years of hard(or mediocre) work does not produce any significant improvement in the way you impact the organisation, market or the world. It’s stagnation with no prospects on improvement. A flat line.
The Dip
That’s what everyone dreams off. When all the hard work that you did (months or years of struggle) pays off and you create a real impact. You make the change that you seek in the world. You transform the market. Or create a new one. Things take off. And you become The Best. In The World.
Where’s the difference?
A couple of things separate a “Cliff” or “Cul-de-sac” from a “Dip”:
1. Identifying The Curve
Knowing where you are is essential to finding your way to the place that you want to be in. Having enough information and a clear enough perspective to identify where the path leads you is a must.
If the Payoff at the end is not worth the struggle to get there - Quit.
2. Mediocre vs Exceptional work
The way you handle the boring, challenging or difficult work of the long dip is what makes(a large part of) the difference. You can be swayed by the hardship of the moment and start cutting corners, slacking and doing mediocre work.
People who do Exceptional work while overcoming the dip are the ones that make it out the other way.
3. Being Remarkable vs Playing it safe
Form an early age we’re programmed by our school system to fit in. Do what everyone else does. Compete by the rules. Play it safe. Be mediocre and do mediocre work.
If you identify that the curve is a Cul-de-sac or a Cliff, that you’re going to quit or fail anyway, you might as well take a chance and do something remarkable. Unexpected. Exceptional. Something that people will talk about. Why not?
4. Having enough resources to overcome the Dip you chose
Even if you do all of the above correctly, the dip may be too big for you to overcome. The market may be too big for your budget(or team size). You may try to be the Best, but the World may be too large. In that case — change the definition of World. If you have fewer resources, go after a smaller market and become the best at that. Or just quit and find a smaller dip with more lucrative payoff.
I haven’t talked much about quitting until now. Knowing all of the above, it’s actually easy to tell when to quit. You should quit:
If you’re doing mediocre work. If the payoff is not worth the dip. If you’re not doing anything remarkable. If you’re not trying to be the best in the world. If the dip is too large for the resources you’ve got.
In contrast, here’s when you should stick:
If things get better with every new month(or customer). If you’re doing exceptional work. If you’re going for “the best in the world”. If you’re doing remarkable things. If you can get through the dip with the resources you’ve got. If the payoff is worth the struggle.
This article is just a short summary of all of the ideas the book has. It’s obvious that Seth Godin had entrepreneurs in mind when he wrote the book, but the same concepts might as well be applied to your career, relationships or other parts of one’s life.
I’m not writing this to spare you the opportunity of reading the book. I’m writing it to inspire you to buy it. The book is small(80 pages), cheap(few hours of reading), and profound(it will really change the way you look at the things you do). I know it impacted me a lot.
Go on, check it out.
P.S. I don’t take any referral money from amazon.
