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

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

Seth Godin. Portfolio, $12.95 (80pp) ISBN 978-1-59184-166-1

Yet another easily digestible social marketplace commentary from the blogger/author who penned Purple Cow and Small is the New Big, Godin prescribes a cleverly counter-intuitive way to approach one's potential for success. Smart, honest, and refreshingly free of self-help posturing, this primer on winning-through-quitting is at once motivational and comically indifferent, making the lofty goal of ""becoming the best in the world"" an achievable proposition-all you need is to ""start doing some quitting."" The secret to ""strategic quitting"" is seeking, understanding and embracing ""the Dip,"" ""the long slog between starting and mastery"" in which those without the determination or will find themselves burning out. As such, Godin demonstrates how to identify and quit your ""Cul-de-Sac"" and ""Cliff"" situations, in which no amount of work will lead to success. Godin provides tips for finding your Dip, taking advantage of it and becoming one of the few (inevitably valuable) players to emerge on the other side; he also provides guidelines for quitting with confidence. Quick, hilarious and happily irreverent, Godin's truth-that ""we fail when we get distracted by tasks we don't have the guts to quit""-makes excellent sense of an often-difficult career move.