The Dip

For Christmas Alison gave me “The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When To Quit (And When To Stick)” by Seth Godin. It really is a little book. I sat down today and read it. It is a really good book and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to accomplish something. It doesn’t matter if that something is health-related, geared toward professional development, relationship-based, or even a very personal goal. This book outlines a common-sense approach to goal setting, decision-making, and attaining success.

“The Dip” focuses on how to succeed by making three key points – why it is important to be the best in the world at what we do, how to recognize a dip, and when to quit.

Being number one brings a lot of value. Number one accrues immense value because as a society we love winners and we seek out the best. If you are sick you want the best doctor, if you are looking for music to listen to you look for a great song. Being the best attracts users, listeners, friends, admirers, supporters, etc. But it also is important because there is scarcity in the world. We have a finite amount of time and resources. Because of this scarcity, there are a limited number of options out there. We cannot all be number one at everything it is too hard. The difficulty makes it scarce, which makes it valuable to be number one.

The main idea focuses on this graph – the dip.

When you start something new it feels great. You are learning a lot and there is a lot of rewards – you see great results for your limited effort. As you continue with the endeavor the rewards drop off and it becomes more difficult. This is the dip, where most people give up. It is the barrier to success. Seth Godin posits that this is the point where successful people, the ones who become the best in the world, lean in and push through the dip. Because on the other side of the dip is mastery and greater reward. The trick is to recognize the dip and to be willing to work through it.

The final important point is to know when to quit. Inside the front cover of the dip is this quote, “The old saying is wrong – winners do quit and quitters do win.” Seth Godin teaches about two other graphs – the Cul-de-sac (a dead-end/mediocrity) and the cliff (escalating commitment leading to failure). The trick to success then is recognizing when a project or path is going nowhere and quitting early and often. Once you have quit you can refocus the energy you were using to a more worthwhile pursuit. Quitting is a good long-term strategy, but is not effective when it is a short-term or shortsighted decision. The key is to use quitting as an intelligent strategy. As Seth Godin writes, “To be a superstar, you must do something exceptional…The next time you catch yourself being average when you feel like quitting, realize that you have only two good choices: Quit or be exceptional. Average is for losers.”

All our successes are the same. All our failures, too.

We succeed when we do something remarkable.

We fail when we give up too soon.

We succeed when we are the best in the world at what we do.

We fail when we get distracted by tasks we don’t have the guts to quit.

-Seth Godin