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To Quit or Not?

Seth Godin has a gift, a very American one I might add, of storytelling that makes holding his books and turning the pages a joy. Such is The Dip, a brief etude on when to quit (and when not to): a literary dessert.

It has 80-something pages but could easily be condensed to just one:

  1. Be #1 at whatever you are doing.
  2. To get there, you will, after the initial outburst of energy, get to a point where you will need to sacrifice your whole self to cross the line that separates masters from has-beens
  3. You have to know if you’ve got what it takes; if not, quit, and don’t be ashamed of it.

Anybody could tell you that, yet it’s one thing to absorb a bulleted list and another to give it 2 hours of reading and pondering. I suppose this is what separates true writers from people who have an opinion and can write; I, for one, can’t get myself to spend any more time on an idea I have already covered here, which could explain both the scarcity of content lately and the lack of continuity… but I digress.

The Dip is a motivational book, and I recommend reading it whenever you feel like giving up and going with the flow, not sticking your head high, taking the easy way. Time is the scarcest of resources, and it doesn’t make sense wasting it on being just 60% good, 40% happy, or 55% motivated.

July 11, 2007 | Filed Under Asides & Off-topic, Enterpreneurship, Me & You, But Mostly Me 

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