The Dip - Seth Godin (Category J)
Chapter 1
Winslen Bradly says - “Quitters don’t win, and Winners don’t quit”.
A BAD advice. Winners quit the right stuff at the right time. Most people quit, and they quit at wrong time. Societies are profited by their quitting. Often businesses count on these quits.
Extra ordinary benefits acrew to the tiny minority of people who are able to push just the tiny bit longer than most. Extra ordinary benefits also acrew to the tiny majority with the guts to quit early and refocus their efforts on something new. In both cases, its about being the best in the world. Quit the wrong stuff, and stick to the right stuff. Have the guts to do the one or the other.
You will have to quit countless other pursuits. You can’t do too many things, especially if you want to be the best in the world.
Winners win big because world celebrates winners. Most often, being number #1 only counts.
Chapter 2
People don’t have a lot of time, and they don’t want to take a lot of risk. Why screw around when you get only one chance.
When you visit a new city, you don’t ask for an average restaurant;
When hiring, you don’t ask your HR for an average candidate;
While looking for your treatment, you don’t look for an average doctor;
With limited time or opportunity for experiment, we intentionally narrow our choices to those at the top. Hence rewards of being first are enormous.
People make choice of best, as in best for them, right now, based on what they believe and what they know, and in the world, the world as they know. Best is subjective, same as world. Everyone has own perception of their own world and that of best.
For example, the best hernia doctor for me is the one who is recommended by my friends, one who has degree with specialization in hernia, one who is located in my city for being reachable, and finally the one within my budget.
Chapter 3
Every market segment today has infinite choices. Given infinite choices, many people pick the market leader. Best selling books still outsell back-list titles, big insurance companies get clients just because they are big.
If something is not worth putting your best, then why bother at all. Stop improving something unless it is truely remarkable. One needs to be exceptional in things that matter. Nobody cares if an accountant knows golf better, or if a doctor can drive the car better.
Chapter 4
“Strategic quitting is secret of successful organization, and reactive & serial quitting are pain of unsuccessful Orgs.”
<note tip>Most people quit when it is painful, and stick when they are not bothered to quit.</note>
There are two main curves in almost all the areas that you want to accomplish that decide the outcome.
Curve 1: The Dip - Successful people don’t just ride out the dip, they lean into the dip, they seek the dip, they push harder changing the rules as required. Dips don’t take long when you riddle with them.
Curve 2: The Dead-end - This is a straight line. You work, work, and work. It doesn’t get a lot better, it doesn’t get a lot worse, it just is as is. When you find one such job, you need to get off it fast. That’s because the dead-end is keeping you from trying out something else. The opportunity cost of spending life on something that is not going to be better is just too high.
That’s it, two big curves. Stick with the dips that are likely to pan out, and quit the dead-ends to focus your resources.
Chapter 5
If something is worth doing, it has a Dip. Most of the people don’t turn out of dip. Dip creates scarcity, and scarcity creates value. If you face the cliff/dead-end, you need to quit, not soon, but right now.
The heart of problem is inability of people not being able to quit the boat when it is smooth sailing towards dead-end. People tend to live in same place to avoid the short term hassle of changing the path. What is the point of sticking it out if you are not going to get the benefits of being the best in the world.
The reason that why people don’t take hard decisions is because the other side is difficult and unpredictable. The fact that the other side is difficult and unpredictable works to your advantage. Because if it were any other way, there would be no profit. For instance:
Without obnoxious customers, there would be no need of you. You will be easily replaceable.
If some work is so easy that anybody can do it, why would somebody pay you high to do it?
The dip is your very best friend. Whatever you might be doing: doing work, playing golf, whatever, you have made significant investments, you have invested time, efforts and money to get to this moment. You have acquired the education, the reputation, all to confront this dip right now. The dip is the reason you are here.
Hardworking and motivated people find diversification a natural outlet for their energy and drive. Diversification feels like the right thing to do: enter a new market, apply for a job in a new area, start a new sport, who knows this might just be the one. And yet the real success goes to the ones who obsess the focus that leads you through the dip to the other side is rewarded by market place in search of the best in the world.
Chapter 6
A wood pecker can tap 20 times on 1000 trees and get nowhere, but stay busy. Or he can tap 20000 times on one tree and get dinner. Before you enter a new market, consider what would happen if you managed to get through the dip and win in the market you are already in.
It is easy to be mediocre than it is to confront reality and quit. “Most of people are afraid to quit. Quitting requires you to acknowledge that you are never going to be best in the world, at least not at this”.
Super Stars get what they want because of their unique skills. A super star is best in the world at what he/she does. If you want to be a super star, then you need to find a field with the steep dip. A barrier between those who try and those who succeed. And you have got to get through that dip to the other side. If you choose this dip, it is because you think, you can get through it. The dip is your ally because it makes the project worthwhile and keeps others from competing with you.
That is not enough. Not only do you need to identify the dip that you can conquer, but you also need to quit all the dead-ends that you are currently idling your way through. You must quit the projects, investments, and endeavors that don’t offer you the same opportunity.
Being better than 98% of others used to be fine. But it is useless in world of Google as the competition is just one click away. The only position you can count on now is the “best in the world”.
Here are 7 ways you might fail to become the best in the world
You run out of time and quit.
You run out of money.
You get scared.
You are not serious about it.
You loose interest or enthusiasm or settle for mediocre.
You focus on short term instead long term and quit when short term gets too hard.
You pick the wrong thing at which to be the best in the world, that doesn’t match you/your team’s talent to pursue it.
The important thing to remember about these 7 ways is that you can plan for them. You can know before you start whether or not you have the resources and will to get to the end. Most of the times, if you failed, its either because you planned wrong, or you gave up before you reached the goal.
One of the underpinnings of the ‘dip’ is ‘pyramid’. A pyramid scheme is a scam in which the people at the bottom support the guy at the top. For ex, Netflix offer 6 movies per week for $10 per month. There will be enthusiasts who watch one movie every day. Hence Netflix could do this only by counting on members who loose interest and do not watch probably even single movie in entire month. Similarly, health clubs operate on those members who are not actively participating in health club activities, but still paying the rentals. Football coaching centers build up on large number of those who join initially, but can’t sustain till the end.
“Its no wonder that we quit. The system wants us to.”
“Dip causes scarcity, and scarcity leads to value.”
Chapter 7
It is very easy to identify if it is a dead-end or dip. The hard part is to do something about it.
All competitive exams exist for lengthening the dip and making the life easier and competition free for those on the other side. If you can keep going when the system is expecting you to stop, you will achieve extra ordinary results. When people make it through the dip, they are scarce indeed, and hence they create the value: the income, the privileges, and the respect.
If you are going to quit, quit before you even start, reject the system, don’t play the game if you realize you can’t be the best in the world. Average is for loosers. Quitting at the right time is difficult. Most of us don’t have the guts to quit.
To be a super star, you must do something exceptional. Not just survive the dip, but also use the opportunity to create something extra ordinary that people can’t help, but talk about it, recommend it, and yes, choose it.
So, whenever next time you catch yourself being average, when you feel like quitting, realize that you only have 2 good choices: Quit or Be Exceptional. Average is for loosers. Average feels safe, but its not. Its the last choice. The path of least resistance.
The temptation to be average is just another kind of quitting. The kind to be avoided.
Chapter 8
The opposite of quitting is not waiting around, rather it is new strategy to break the problem apart. When the pain gets so bad that you are ready to quit, you set yourself up as someone who with nothing to loose. You can go for a broke, challenge authority, lean into the problem, and may be you lean the problem through it.
Here is what you can note down and post it on your bulletin board: <note important>“If you are not going to get to number #1, you might as well quit now!”</note>.
It is okay to quit some times, in fact it is okay to quit often:
You should quit if you are on a dead-end path
You should quit if you are on a cliff
You should quit if you are in dip that you can’t conquer
Strategic quitting is the conscious decision you make based on the choices that are available to you. Quitting smart way is though a way to avoid failing: failing in job, failing in life, failing in own’s terms.
All the mediocre work is not because there is lack of talent, rather because there is a dead-end. If best you can do is to cope, you better off quitting.
Quitting as a short term strategy is a bad idea, but quitting for long term is an excellent idea - Meaning, never quit something without long term potential because you can’t deal the short term stress at the moment.
The very reason that people hang onto something is pride. If the pride is the only thing keeping you from quitting, then quit the pride.
Chapter 9
Ask yourself 3 questions:
Am I panicking? - Quitting when you panic is dangerous and often expensive. The best quitters are the ones who decide in advance. When you are on highest stress, it is the wrongest moment to quit, but quite often the chosen path by many.
Who am I trying to influence? - If you are considering quit, it is because you have failed to influence someone in your current prospect. Influencing one person is like climbing a wall, at each new attempt, it gets even higher. Influencing a market on other hand is like climbing a hill. You can make progress on step at a time.
What sort of measurable progress am I making? - If you are trying to succeed in a job, a relationship or a task, there are only 3 possibilities: You are either moving forward, or falling behind, or standing still. To get to the goal, you have got to make the forward progress, no matter how small.
When you are trying to influence the entire market, the cost of not quitting is too high.
When it comes to the job, a job is just a tactic to reach the end goal you want. If your job is nearing dead-end, better is to quit as otherwise it would move your target more far from you with time.
Same is true for an organizations. Organizations don’t define your success by the tactics you use. Instead your organization fails or succeeds to reach its bigger goals. And the moment that your current tactics no longer are winning the dip, the moment that they have hit the dead-end, you are obligated to switch the tactics and at the same time, you definitely keep aiming for the bigger goal.
Seduction of not quitting and the stories of sticking out almost always comes from people moving through the market. On the other hand, when have you heard of dead end job, a dead end relationship, or dead-end sales prospect, that changed forever.
Write down “Under what circumstances you are going to quit? And follow it through”
Chapter 10
If you blow up 10% less than required amount of air into bicycle tire, it will be flat and malfunctioning. If you blow 10% higher, there will be risks of blowing up the tire.
If you enter into a market that is too big or too loud for the amount of resources that you have available, your message is going to get lost. Your marketing disappears, your message fails to spread. Launching a product into too big of a market has little effect. You will never create a pressure, and you will never reach a dip. Figure out how much pressure you have available and then pick up the tire. Not too big, not too small.
If its not going to put a dent in the world, quit. Right now! Quit and use that void to find the energy to assault the dip that matters. Go ahead, make something happen, we are waiting.
Some questions:
Is this a dip, a cliff, or a dead-end?
If it is a dead-end, can I turn it into a dip? Is my persistence going to pay off in the long run?
Am I engaged with just one person or the organization?
When should I quit? I need to decide now.
If I quit this task, will it increase my ability to get through the dip?
If I am going to quit anyway, is there something dramatic I can do instead that might change the game?
What chance does this project have to be the best in the world?
Who decides what the best is?
Can we make the world smaller?
We succeed when we do something remarkable. We fail when we quit too soon.