Quotes from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“A woodpecker can tap twenty times on a thousand trees and get nowhere, but stay busy. Or he can tap twenty-thousand times on one tree and get dinner.”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“The people who are the best in the world specialize at getting really good at the questions they don't know.”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“The Cul-de-Sac ( French for "dead end" ) ... is a situation where you work and work and work and nothing much changes”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“Persistent people are able to visualize the idea of light at the end of the tunnel when others can't see it”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“No one knows more about the way you think than you do.”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“The time to look for a new job is when you don't need one. The time to switch jobs is before it feels comfortable.”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“The Dip creates scarcity; scarcity creates value”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“Never quit something with great long-term potential just because you can’t deal with the stress of the moment.”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“Strategic quitting is the secret of successful organizations”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“Quit or be exceptional. Average is for losers.”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“The people who skip the hard questions are in the majority, but they are not in demand.”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“Stick with the Dips that are likely to pan out, and quit the Cul-de-Sacs to focus your resources”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“The market ... demands a signal from you that you're serious, powerful, accepted, and safe.”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“Here’s a quote from ultramarathoner Dick Collins: Decide before the race the conditions that will cause you to stop and drop out. You don’t want to be out there saying, “Well gee, my leg hurts, I’m a little dehydrated, I’m sleepy, I’m tired, and it’s cold and windy.” And talk yourself into quitting. If you are making a decision based on how you feel at that moment, you will probably make the wrong decision.”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“People settle. They settle for less than they are capable of.”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“Selling is about a transference of emotion, not a presentation of facts.”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“With limited time or opportunity to experiment, we intentionally narrow our choices to those at the top.”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: 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.”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“There’s not a lot to say about the Cul-de-Sac except to realize that it exists and to embrace the fact that when you find one, you need to get off it, fast. That’s because a dead end is keeping you from doing something else. The opportunity cost of investing your life in something that’s not going to get better is just too high.”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“Extraordinary benefits also accrue to the tiny majority with the guts to quit early and refocus their efforts on something new.”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“And yet the real success goes to those who obsess. The focus that leads you through the Dip to the other side is rewarded by a marketplace in search of the best in the world.”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“Extraordinary benefits accrue to the tiny minority of people who are able to push just a tiny bit longer than most.”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“الموهوبون فقط هم الذين يقلقون من الأداء المتواضع”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“Here’s an assignment for you: Write it down. Write down under what circumstances you’re willing to quit. And when. And then stick with it.”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“It’s Almost Impossible to Overinvest in Becoming the Market Leader.”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“You and your organization have the power to change everything. To create remarkable products and services. To over deliver. To be the best in the world. How dare you squander that resource by spreading it too thin. How dare you settle for mediocre just because you’re busy coping with too many things on your agenda, racing against the clock to get it all done.”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“most competitors quit long before they’ve created something that makes it to the top.”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“Just about everything you learned in school about life is wrong, but the wrongest thing might very well be this: Being well rounded is the secret to success.”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

“If you took organic chemistry in college, you’ve experienced the Dip. Academia doesn’t want too many unmotivated people to attempt medical school, so they set up a screen. Organic chemistry is the killer class, the screen that separates the doctors from the psychologists. If you can’t handle organic chemistry, well, then, you can’t go to med school.”
― Seth Godin, quote from The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

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Popular quotes

“something is malignantly addictive if (1) it causes real problems for the addict, and (2) it offers itself as a relief from the very problems it causes.”
― David Foster Wallace, quote from A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments

“POLLARD had known better, but instead of pulling rank and insisting that his officers carry out his proposal to sail for the Society Islands, he embraced a more democratic style of command. Modern survival psychologists have determined that this “social”—as opposed to “authoritarian”—form of leadership is ill suited to the early stages of a disaster, when decisions must be made quickly and firmly. Only later, as the ordeal drags on and it is necessary to maintain morale, do social leadership skills become important. Whalemen in the nineteenth century had a clear understanding of these two approaches. The captain was expected to be the authoritarian, what Nantucketers called a fishy man. A fishy man loved to kill whales and lacked the tendency toward self-doubt and self-examination that could get in the way of making a quick decision. To be called “fishy to the backbone” was the ultimate compliment a Nantucketer could receive and meant that he was destined to become, if he wasn’t already, a captain. Mates, however, were expected to temper their fishiness with a more personal, even outgoing, approach. After breaking in the green hands at the onset of the voyage—when they gained their well-deserved reputations as “spit-fires”—mates worked to instill a sense of cooperation among the men. This required them to remain sensitive to the crew’s changeable moods and to keep the lines of communication open. Nantucketers recognized that the positions of captain and first mate required contrasting personalities. Not all mates had the necessary edge to become captains, and there were many future captains who did not have the patience to be successful mates. There was a saying on the island: “[I]t is a pity to spoil a good mate by making him a master.” Pollard’s behavior, after both the knockdown and the whale attack, indicates that he lacked the resolve to overrule his two younger and less experienced officers. In his deference to others, Pollard was conducting himself less like a captain and more like the veteran mate described by the Nantucketer William H. Macy: “[H]e had no lungs to blow his own trumpet, and sometimes distrusted his own powers, though generally found equal to any emergency after it arose. This want of confidence sometimes led him to hesitate, where a more impulsive or less thoughtful man would act at once. In the course of his career he had seen many ‘fishy’ young men lifted over his head.” Shipowners hoped to combine a fishy, hard-driving captain with an approachable and steady mate. But in the labor-starved frenzy of Nantucket in 1819, the Essex had ended up with a captain who had the instincts and soul of a mate, and a mate who had the ambition and fire of a captain. Instead of giving an order and sticking with it, Pollard indulged his matelike tendency to listen to others. This provided Chase—who had no qualms about speaking up—with the opportunity to impose his own will. For better or worse, the men of the Essex were sailing toward a destiny that would be determined, in large part, not by their unassertive captain but by their forceful and fishy mate.”
― Nathaniel Philbrick, quote from In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex

“We know the story of the Deluge from the Holy Scripture. Why did the first race of men come to such a tragic end? Because they had abandoned God and must die, guilty and innocent alike. They had only themselves to blame for their punishment. And it is the same today.”
― Władysław Szpilman, quote from The Pianist: The Extraordinary Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939–45

“My child, I am the Lord Who gives strength in the day of trouble. Come to Me when all is not well with you. Your tardiness in turning to prayer is the greatest obstacle to heavenly consolation, for before you pray earnestly to Me you first seek many comforts and take pleasure in outward things. Thus, all things are of little profit to you until you realize that I am the one Who saves those who trust in Me, and that outside of Me there is no worth-while help, or any useful counsel or lasting remedy.”
― Thomas à Kempis, quote from The Imitation of Christ

“She straightened. “You tried to seduce me, for information.”
“You can’t hold that against me forever.”
“It was last night.”
“Well I was running out of options, and I figured it was worth a shot.”
Lila rolled her eyes. “You really know how to make a girl feel special.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from A Gathering of Shadows

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