• The Dip

  • By: Seth Godin
  • Narrated by: Seth Godin
  • Length: 1 hr and 32 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (4,644 ratings)

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The Dip  By  cover art

The Dip

By: Seth Godin
Narrated by: Seth Godin
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Publisher's summary

Every new project (or job, or hobby, or company) starts out exciting and fun. Then it gets harder and less fun, until it hits a low point: really hard, and not much fun at all.

And then you find yourself asking if the goal is even worth the hassle. Maybe you're in a Dip: a temporary setback that you will overcome if you keep pushing. But maybe it's really a Cul-de-Sac, which will never get better, no matter how hard you try.

According to best-selling author Seth Godin, what really sets superstars apart from everyone else is the ability to escape dead ends quickly while staying focused and motivated when it really counts.

Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt: until they commit to beating the right Dip for the right reasons. In fact, winners seek out the Dip. They realize that the bigger the barrier, the bigger the reward for getting past it. If you can become number one in your niche, you'll get more than your fair share of profits, glory, and long-term security.

Losers, on the other hand, fall into two basic traps. Either they fail to stick out the Dip - they get to the moment of truth and then give up - or they never even find the right Dip to conquer.

Whether you're a graphic designer, a sales rep, an athlete, or an aspiring CEO, this fun little book will help you figure out if you're in a Dip that's worthy of your time, effort, and talents. If you are, The Dip will inspire you to hang tough. If not, it will help you find the courage to quit so you can be number one at something else.

Seth Godin doesn't claim to have all the answers. But he will teach you how to ask the right questions.

©2007 Seth Godin (P)2007 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about The Dip

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  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Waste of time

I'm usually a big Seth Godin fan but this book was terrible! He spends an hour and a half telling you that if you cant be #1 then quit, if there is no light at the tunnel then quit, and don't imagine a light at the tunnel if there is none. Over and over.

What he doesn't say is how to know if there is a light at the end of the tunnel or if you are imagining one. When you have a great business idea, you always think there's light at the end of the tunnel but you might work for years in vain. This book doesn't teach you how to evaluate opportunities, how to know when to quit, how to know what's on the other side of the dip. It reads like a rough draft that should come back with repetitive sections crossed out and the words "needs to include more practical advice" on it.



I could have gotten the same advice from one paragraph about Jack Welsh. Godin just says if there is a big payoff after the dip then you should stay on track but if there's not then quit and don't be average. Duh. I think his editor should quit.

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72 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Touches to quitting, when to quit - just touches

As an opening act, the book tries to convince you that you should aim to be best in the world. "If you are not sold on being the best in the world, you probably don't need the rest of what I am about to tell you.", author says around 12th minute, and this sentence was nerving. I am not interested in being sold on being the best in the world! I am interested in making smart decisions about quitting.

The book keeps going on the being-the-best idea for quite a while. Making smart decisions about when to quit and when to persevere has no what-so-ever correlation with being the best. Therefore in my opinion the book does not deliver what its title implies (will teach you when to quit or stick).

Examples I can remember either are too obvious: e.g. deciding to learn snowboarding,
a. you do the brave thing, start and go through the tough parts, and complete
b. you do the mature thing, evaluate and decide it is not something you want to do
c. you decide to learn, spent a lot of money and time, and quit, which is the stupid thing to do.

Or too vague: if you do not see light at the end of the tunnel, then maybe it is time to quit?

Or logically faulty: Any of the 42000 graduates can become the best, but they did not, because they quit because of one reason or another.

The author puts these in a much more attractive way than I did (and if you read all #1556# characters of my review, then, since you persevere as I do, you might still find the book worthy. After all, I am not saying it is totally worthless. Just don't have high hopes!)

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56 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Seth Should Have Quit

I generally love Seth Godin's work, but The Dip, a book about the merits of quitting, was a meandering stream of consciousness essay that lacked substance and research.

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48 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A must listen for any author who

If you are a writer, you know the dip. It often comes after your first few weeks of writing a new book, after the subject is no longer fresh, the story is pretty much fleshed out, or your outline is fairly complete. . . then boredom sets in. The new challenges that stimulated you into all that hard work earlier, are no longer interesting. Now the hard, boring, day to day work comes in. The poring over your every word, comma and plot point--many times over. You are in the dip. The thing that separates the pros from the wanna-bees. This audio makes this concept very real, which also makes it very possible to overcome. It also may help you with finding out just how vested you are in a story or book, and if you should quit or persevere. This book is definitely worth a listen.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Good

this is nothing new or amazing, it is a good review of what most people already know just with new terms to define it.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Short motivational speech

Fine if you just want a small motivational push in the right direction. Not really what I had in mind. Concepts were explained superficially in several ways, but I found concepts to be obvious and unhelpful so repetition felt monotonous. Was hoping for some new ideas and methods to apply to real life.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

I Quit!

Where does The Dip rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

“Quitters never win and winners never quit.” So said American football legend Vince Lombardi in what has become conventional wisdom.

But sometimes, conventional wisdom isn’t very wise. In his little book, the dip, Seth Godin claims that winners quit all the time. They just quit the right stuff at the right time.

In order to go forward, we often have to QUIT something.

Seth Godin says that initiatives, jobs, hobbies and companies start out exciting and fun. After an exciting start, we experience “the dip,” a time when we get discouraged and feel like giving up.

The dip can be a temporary setback and will get better if you push through it. But it also might be a cul-de-sac (dead end) or a cliff that will be your certain demise.

A key is knowing how to read the dips and respond appropriately. Should you push through that job you hate, or abandon the dead end or cliff? Perhaps quitting is exactly what you need to do in order to go forward.

What other book might you compare The Dip to and why?

The dip is one of two books on quitting I’ve read recently. The other is Quitter by Jon Acuff.

Both authors claim that quitting is not always wrong; in fact, strategic quitting can be fantastic!

Though the style is very different, both books examine the subject, though from different angles.

Any additional comments?

The Dip and Quitter inspired me to write an article on my blog.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Wish the author had quit

Pointless book on an obvious topic. The only redeeming thing about this book is that it’s short. However, as short as it is, it could have been even shorter. The author should have just sent out a tweet. “Sometimes it’s best to quit.”

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Should have been nothing more than the closing quiz

Wow. This sounded like a schizophrenic read to me. “You must quit what has no future potential! But you must persevere through the dip!” (The “dip” The hard part before an imminent success breakthrough) “You must quit!” “Don’t be lazy and quit!” Back and forth, back and forth. Perhaps that was the author’s genius... to get you simply to consider quitting. But as for a clear crystal ball? Yeah, hm...

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book about why you should quit and what

I am sad that this book is no longer. The information in it is absolutely amazing.
I liked Seth's approach to quitting. He's talking about when to quit and when to stick to it, for what it's worth.
Seth's narrative performance is again at it's top

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3 people found this helpful