The Dip

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.

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.

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

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!)

“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.

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.

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

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.

Great book and well read. No fluff or padding as it was straight down to business with getting his points across. I really liked the author's lively reading style too.

Informative
Fun
WoW

Just the story telling of how business really works.

Since he wrote the book it brings a sense of realism.

Yes

Read it!

It really makes you think about what it takes to succeed in all facets of life.

This book was short and worth the listen. His concept of what the Dip is and being honest with yourself about your projects is worth while to consider. Some of it I disagreed with initially but in the end, it is actually applicable for all of us. We just don't want to listen or believe it. The best concepts are the ones that are obvious to us only after someone has said it! This maybe one of those.