The Dip: The extraordinary benefits of knowing when to quit (and when to stick)
No, the reason that most of them didn’t have a chance is that somewhere along the way they quit. They didn’t quit high school or college or law school. Instead, they quit in their quest to be the best in the world because the cost just seemed too high.
Seth Godin • The Dip: The extraordinary benefits of knowing when to quit (and when to stick)
every day you get better at something that isn’t that useful—and you are another day behind others who are learning something more useful.
Seth Godin • The Dip: The extraordinary benefits of knowing when to quit (and when to stick)
Quitting when you hit the Dip is a bad idea. If the journey you started was worth doing, then quitting when you hit the Dip just wastes the time you’ve already invested.
Seth Godin • The Dip: The extraordinary benefits of knowing when to quit (and when to stick)
Selling is about a transference of emotion, not a presentation of facts. If it were just a presentation of facts, then a PDF flyer or a Web site would be sufficient to make the phone ring.
Seth Godin • The Dip: The extraordinary benefits of knowing when to quit (and when to stick)
A woodpecker can tap twenty times on a thousand trees and get nowhere, but stay busy. Or he can tap twenty-thousand times on one tree and get dinner. Before you enter a new market, consider what would happen if you managed to get through the Dip and win in the market you’re already in.
Seth Godin • The Dip: The extraordinary benefits of knowing when to quit (and when to stick)
Short-term pain has more impact on most people than long-term benefits do, which is why it’s so important for you to amplify the long-term benefits of not quitting. You need to remind yourself of life at the other end of the Dip because it’s easier to overcome the pain of yet another unsuccessful cold call if the reality of a successful sales caree
... See moreSeth Godin • The Dip: The extraordinary benefits of knowing when to quit (and when to stick)
When Jack Welch remade GE, the most fabled decision he made was this: If we can’t be #1 or #2 in an industry, we must get out. Why sell a billion-dollar division that’s making a profit quite happily while ranking #4 in market share? Easy. Because it distracts management attention. It sucks resources and capital and focus and energy. And most of all
... See moreSeth Godin • The Dip: The extraordinary benefits of knowing when to quit (and when to stick)
Define field of play
If you find yourself facing either of these two curves, you need to quit. Not soon, but right now. The biggest obstacle to success in life, as far as I can tell, is our inability to quit these curves soon enough.
Seth Godin • The Dip: The extraordinary benefits of knowing when to quit (and when to stick)
IMPORTANT NOTE: Successful people don’t just ride out the Dip. They don’t just buckle down and survive it. No, they lean into the Dip. They push harder, changing the rules as they go. Just because you know you’re in the Dip doesn’t mean you have to live happily with it. Dips don’t last quite as long when you whittle at them.
Seth Godin • The Dip: The extraordinary benefits of knowing when to quit (and when to stick)
Because day to day, it’s easier to stick with something that we’re used to, that doesn’t make too many waves, that doesn’t hurt.