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.

The people who are the best in the world specialize at getting really good at the questions they don't know.

The Cul-de-Sac ( French for "dead end" ) ... is a situation where you work and work and work and nothing much changes

Persistent people are able to visualize the idea of light at the end of the tunnel when others can't see it

No one knows more about the way you think than you do.

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.

Never quit something with great long-term potential just because you can’t deal with the stress of the moment.

Strategic quitting is the secret of successful organizations

Quit or be exceptional. Average is for losers.

The people who skip the hard questions are in the majority, but they are not in demand.

Stick with the Dips that are likely to pan out, and quit the Cul-de-Sacs to focus your resources

The market ... demands a signal from you that you're serious, powerful, accepted, and safe.

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.

People settle. They settle for less than they are capable of.

Selling is about a transference of emotion, not a presentation of facts.

With limited time or opportunity to experiment, we intentionally narrow our choices to those at the top.

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.

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.

Extraordinary benefits also accrue to the tiny majority with the guts to quit early and refocus their efforts on something new.

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.

Extraordinary benefits accrue to the tiny minority of people who are able to push just a tiny bit longer than most.

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.

It’s Almost Impossible to Overinvest in Becoming the Market Leader.

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.

most competitors quit long before they’ve created something that makes it to the top.

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.

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.