Skip to main content

The Dip

By Seth Godin

A little book that teaches you when to quit (and when to stick)

  • To be a superstar, you must do something exceptional. Not just survive the Dip, but use the Dip as an opportunity to create something so extraordinary that people can't help but talk about it, recommend it, and, yes, choose it.
  • The next time you catch yourself being average when you feel like quitting, realize that you have only two good choices: Quit or be exceptional. Average is for losers.
  • Winners understand that taking that pain now prevents a lot more pain later. Winners quit all the time. They just quit the right stuff at the right time.
  • The decision to quit or not is a simple evaluation: Is the pain of the Dip worth the benefit of the light at the end of the tunnel?
  • Quitting as a short-term strategy is a bad idea. Quitting for the long term is an excellent idea because it frees you up to excel at something else.
  • Quit the wrong stuff. Stick with the right stuff. Have the guts to do one or the other.
  • At the beginning, when you first start something, it's fun.Over the next few days and weeks, the rapid learning you experience keeps you going. Whatever your new thing is, it's easy to stay engaged in it. And then the Dip happens. The Dip is the long slog between starting and mastery. A long slog that's actually a shortcut, because it gets you where you want to go faster than any other path.
  • Knowing that you're facing a Dip is the first step in getting through it.
  • Quitting when you hit the Dip is a bad idea. If the journey you started was worth doing, then quitting when you hit the Dip just wastes the time you've already invested. Quit in the Dip often enough and you'll find yourself becoming a serial quitter, starting many things but accomplishing little
  • If you can't make it through the Dip, don't start.
  • If you're not able to get through the Dip in an exceptional way, you must quit. And quit right now