Failure is a good thing apparently

I recently finished Seth Godin’s “the Dip”. This is a very quick read; you will be through this in an afternoon. Seth has a wonderful way with prose and can deliver a meaningful and concise message without dragging his readers into slumber land. The intent of the book is to challenge the concept of that old catch phrase “winners never quit”. The Dip focus’s instead on the idea that we should quit more often, thus winners quit alot.

The dip is that decline in success or joy after the initial start of something. Take for example learning the guitar. After the initial euphoria, the new users “happiness” declines rapidly as they struggle to learn the fingerings and chords. However, it they keep at it and practice, they come out of the dip and surpass the initial point of happiness. Obviously the more you practice, the shorter the dip. You can see how this could be easily applied to business of course.

The thought to take from this concept is that you need to look ahead and ascertain if the dip ever comes back up and is the return on investment worth staying in compared to quitting and moving onto something else that may be more successful.
It’s a great book, and well worth the time.