The Dip: The extraordinary benefits of knowing when to quit (and when to stick)

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However, if you are stationary or falling behind it’s time to take a step back, look at your options and decide whether you need to push through the Dip or get out while you can.

The Dip Summary | A Book by Seth Godin - Four Minute Books The Dip Summary | A Book by Seth Godin - Four Minute Books

When the pressure is greatest to compromise, to drop out, or to settle, your desire to quit should be at its lowest. That’s the goal of any competitor: to create a Dip so long and so deep that the nascent competition can’t catch up. He jumps from one to another, and every time he hits an obstacle, he switches to a new, easier, better opportunity. They don’t care because they get a % cut of EVERYTHING that is sold – they don’t care if 1 book sells 100 copies or if there are 100 books that sell 1 copy each – the outcome for them is the same. It means that you have given up, and there are absolutely no more options, you’ve exhausted all of your resources and options.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. If you want to be a superstar, then you need to find a field with a steep Dip—a barrier between those who try and those who succeed. The opportunity coast of investing your life in something that's not going to get better is just too high. Today people wait for new products to be reviewed as high-quality ones before spending their precious money on them.

The Dip by Seth Godin: Summary, Notes, and Lessons - Nat Eliason The Dip by Seth Godin: Summary, Notes, and Lessons - Nat Eliason

Remember that if you’re always looking sideways for short cuts, you’re never looking ahead and getting to the front of the line. Godin shows that winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt — until they commit to beating the right Dip. Before you think about entering a new market or learning a new skill, or starting a new business… consider what would happen if you focused your efforts and managed to get through The Dip that you’re already in.If you are in a new place and ask locals for a typical restaurant, they will probably send you to the most famous one in town. A woodpecker would be more successful by tapping 20,000 times on a single tree than tapping twenty times on a thousand trees. Most people will tell you that you need to persevere – to try harder, to put in more hours, get more training, work hard.

The Dip by Seth Godin | Waterstones

The Cul-de-Sac is boring, the Cliff is exciting (for a while), but neither gets you through the Dip and both lead to failure. The small minority of people who have the courage to quit and refocus their energies on something new also get extraordinary rewards. The Dip on the harmonica is the difference between the easy “beginner” songs with the pucker style, and the more useful “expert” approaches of tongue blocking and bending.If something is worth doing, there will be a dip and you need to learn how to navigate it successfully if you're going to come out the other side.