When should you QUIT something?
So, I recently read ‘The Dip’ by Seth Godin, and this blog is about what I learned from the book.
It’s not a long book, and if you are an avid reader, it would hardly take a few hours. It focuses on QUITTING!! A negative word, right?
No! In fact it is an essential thing that everyone should know ‘when’ to do, if they want to save their precious time, resources and also wants to perform their best in whatever they do. This book will make you aware enough to decide ‘when you need to quit?’ and ‘when you need to stick?’
Everyone must have heard this :
“QUITTERS NEVER WIN AND WINNERS NEVER QUIT!” right? No, wrong!
Here is what it actually should be :
“Winners always quite, it’s just they quit at the right time!!”
Quitting is not something bad to do, it’s just one should know when to quit.
You may have wondered, why only tiny minority of people are able to achieve something extraordinary ?
This is because only these are the people who are able to push themselves just a little bit longer and harder than the most ( going through “The Dip” ) and also have the guts to quit early and refocus their efforts on something new.
Quit the wrong stuff Stick with the right stuff Have the guts to do one or the other !
I just mentioned “The Dip”, let’s see what’s this and understand more about the art of quitting !
The Dip is a curve , it looks like this :
Let’s see more what’s “The Dip”?
-‘The Dip is long slog between starting and mastery.’
-‘The Dip is difference between the easy beginner technique and the more useful expert approach in any skill or thing you are trying to learn or do.’
-‘The Dip is the long stretch between beginner’s luck and real accomplishment.’
When you get started with anything new (learning a new skill, taking up a new hobby and anything similar). Things are in their initial phase and they are comparably easy than they would be in future. It’s fun and easy to do and everyone can do that. People love doing things, where in everything goes smoothly without requiring much of your hard work, efforts and power. But this is never going to be constant, there always, sooner or later comes that phase, when you start to get doubtful about your decisions. You start to think about “quitting” and that is where “The Dip” happens.
What makes successful people different from others is the ability and determination to survive through this Dip. They learn to embrace and lean into the Dip. They push harder than others during the Dip and that’s where they make themselves scare. Scarcity, is the secret to the value and if there wasn’t Dip, there would be no scarcity.
“Dip creates scarcity; scarcity creates value”
So, just stop here for a moment and think about what thing in your life is having The Dip curve. Start embracing that and do efforts to go through that, and make yourself different from ordinary!!
When i read this book, i could actually figure out the things which i was just about to quit, because i had to work hard to complete them, and also the one which i was just carrying as a burden which actually need to be quitted. I won’t be sharing them here, for that i may write another blog! ;-)
So, having said that things need to quitted also “How one can decide when they need to quit something ?”. But before answering this let’s first see what’s “THE CUL-DE-SAC” and “THE CLIFF” curves.
The CUL-DE-SAC ( French for “dead-end”) is a situation where you work and work and work but nothing much changes. It’s like a ‘dead end’. If this happens, the only thing you need to do is to get off it . You need to quit as soon as possible and focus on your resources.
The CLIFF is a situation where you just can’t quit until you fall off, and the whole things fall apart . A little confused right?
No worries just have a look at this simple example to make CUL-DE-SAC more clear : Smoking a cigarette is like going through this curve, whenever you smoke it gives you a pleasure, and you do it, knowing the fact that it’s not good for you. The longer you do it the harder it becomes to quit and better it feels to continue, until finally one day it have some severe and irreversible consequences.
Okay got what these two curves mean so, what now?
Now if you ever find yourself facing either of these two curves , you need to quit right now!! This is how you know that you need to quit !
In the Dip, you need to invest your time, energy and effort to power through Dip, because this is where the success happens.
So, if you want to quit just quit before The Dip, don’t take up the challenge , but if you have and is facing The Dip then just don’t quit at any cost. It’s simple if the journey you started was worth doing then quitting when you hit the Dip just wastes your time you’ve already invested. Also quitting in the Dip often will make you a serial quitter, starting many things but accomplishing little.
Just don’t start if you can’t make through the Dip.
One thing people often confuse quitting is with failing. Quitting isn’t same as failing. Failing happens when you give up, or when you quit so often that you’ve used up all your time and resources. On the other hand quitting at right time is a wise decision, it’s a reasonable and a smart choice. Infact quitting smart, is a great way to avoid failing.
So, here are the three questions you should always ask before quitting :
- AM I PANICKING?
Quitting when panicking is dangerous and expensive. The best quitters , are the ones who decide in advance when they are going to quit. So always wait until you’re done panicking.
- WHO AM I TRYING TO INFLUENCE?
Influencing one person is more like scaling a wall, but influencing a market is more like taking a hill.
- WHAT SORT OF MEASURABLE PROGRESS AM I MAKING?
You’ve got to make some sort of forward progress, no matter how small, and if it is not , i.e., it’s a ‘dead end’ you need to quit as soon as possible.
So, as I end this, I would request everyone to answer these questions for themselves, which are there in book also :
Is this a Dip, a Cliff, or a Cul-de-Sac?
If it’s a Cul-de-Sac, how can I change it into a Dip?
Is my persistence going to pay off in the long run?
When should I quit? I need to decide now, not when I’m in the middle of it, and not when part of me is begging to quit.
If I quit this task, will it increase my ability to get through the Dip on something more important?
If I’m going to quit anyway, is there something dramatic I can do instead that might change the game?
Write them down and decide for yourself!!