“If you are not going to get to #1, you may as well quit now”
“Average is for losers”
Never quit, he says is bad advice. Winners quit all the time – they just quit the right stuff at the right time.
Most people quit – just that they don’t quite successfully. In fact, he says many market places works on the presumption that you will quit. Airlines oversold their flights because they knew they’d profit from the no-shows.
Losers, on the other hand, fall into two basic traps. Either they fail to stick out the Dip – they get to the moment of truth and then give up – or they never even find the right Dip to conquer.
Dip is the long slog between starting and mastery – between beginner’s luck and real accomplishment.
Extraordinary benefits that accrue to the tiny minority who are able to push through just a tiny bit longer than most. Also to the tiny majority who have the guts to quit early and refocus efforts on what matters.
Being best in the world is seriously underrated – the rewards are highly skewed towards the winner. The reason number one matters? People do not have lot of time and don’t want to take lot of risks. If you are diagnosed with cancer, you’d want to go to the ‘top doctor’ – everyone prefers the top choice in the niche.
Anyone who is going to hire you, buy from you, recommend you, vote for you or do what you want them to do is going to wonder if you’re the best choice. Best as in – best for them, right now, based on what they believe in and what they know.
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.
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.
This is from a very short book called ‘Dip by Seth Godin’ about a very relevant topic – quitting. A great strategy to manage your life and career.
Bottomline – to quote
“Quit the wrong stuff. Stick with the right stuff. Have the guts to do one or the other”