Learn when to quit, when to stick around
The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When To Quit (and When To Stick)
By Seth Godin
Portfolio, $10.36
NEW YORK -- At some stage in everyone's career comes a desire to throw down tools and walk away, and plenty of motivational books say you should resist that temptation. Now, a new book says quitting can be a good strategy.
The central premise of "The Dip -- A Little Book That Teaches You When To Quit (and When To Stick)" is that in all parts of life -- work, leisure, relationships, or business -- you will encounter what author Seth Godin calls a dip.
A dip is a "common sinkhole that trips up so many people," he says. It is the long slog between starting and mastery.
It is the difference between the beginner technique and the more useful "expert" approach in, say, skiing or fashion design.
Winners quit fast and quit often and only stick when they find the right dip to conquer, Godin says.
Most CEOs of Fortune 500 companies have been through a huge dip before getting to where they are today, says Godin.
After all, if it weren't for the dip, there wouldn't be the scarcity that creates the value for which the CEO is paid.
Of course, most people do quit when faced with challenges or difficulties. The problem, Godin writes, is that they don't plan when to quit.
If quitting was part of the strategy, then individuals and companies would be more successful.
For example, a business moving into a new market should plan when to quit to ensure that it never settles for mediocrity.
Procter & Gamble has killed "hundreds of products" to concentrate on successes, he notes.
If "The Dip" sounds contrarian, that is something of a theme for Godin, who is the author of other books with counterintuitive titles, like "All Marketers Are Liars" and "Small Is the New Big."
Its anecdotal style, friendly charts, and graphs will remind some readers of last year's popular business book "The Long Tail," by Chris Anderson.
Yet its philosophy is the opposite, because "The Dip" champions the champions while "The Long Tail" champions the little guy.
In Godin's view, it's really only worthwhile being number one in a market or at least having a real shot at being number one.
If you have a shot at being number one, then it's worth "leaning into the dip" says Godin.
He cites
"The Dip" is a mere 80 pages long and is in a pocket-sized format reminiscent of Spencer Johnson's 96-page "Who Moved My Cheese?", a motivational book on how to cope with change that has sold more than 21 million copies since 1998.
The last page of "The Dip" encourages the reader to write in the names of friends or co-workers who need to learn about quitting, a marketing ploy that may help it emulate the smashing success of "Who Moved My Cheese."
