Have you ever read a book or learned an idea just a day or or a month or a year too late? Could that idea have changed things for you in a big way? Reading The Dip by Seth Godin was that way for me. In this tiny little book Seth explodes the myth that “winners never quit and quitters never win.” Bullshit he says. Winners have chosen to quit many, many, many times AND they have chosen to “stick” at critical times.
In a limited number of important instances they have chosen to stay focused and driven until they get thru the Dip. Tne Dip is that difficult spot where you have been working hard for a long time and it seems like you are getting nowhere. Maybe you are applying to your 20th grad school or you struggling thru the 3rd year of your business. Maybe you are at that point where no one believes in you, or what you are doing, or what you stand for… that spot is the dip. The 100 billion dollar question is simple. Is this the Dip before it all takes wings to fly or is this the inexorable sag that you can’t and shouldn’t try to prop up.
I understand that feeling, both the situation and the decision are brutal. I tried to prop a business like that up. If I had read the Dip a couple of years earlier, (Ok, ok it was published in 2007 and I needed it in 20005 or 2006) things could have been a lot different. My advice is read the Dip. Spend some time figuring out which Dips you must push thru and which you must simply quit. Quit those now. Don’t wait. The truly important should never be at the mercy of the unimportant. Can’t decide which is which? That is a tough one and a subject for another day. Hint: Stephen Covey said a lot about this, so did Jack Canfield.
As an Entrepreneur, I understand how easy it is to me inspired or motivated and taken off track. I’ve been there and done that. One of my takeaways from The Dip is that we can only be good at one or maybe two things at the most. You have to narrow down and be specific if you want to succeed. I had a hard time listening to The Dip at first. The idea of quitting irks me still, but I’m working on it.