Book Notes: The Dip

The Dip, by Seth Godin, is a fantastic quick read that helps you decide when you should quit something, or when you should stick with something.

Many struggle with this decision when they face a phenomenon this book calls “The Dip”.

The Dip is a struggle or learning curve you experience when taking something on. It’s a period where the effort you dedicate is high, yet you experience little return. It’s temporary, and a preamble to large returns. However, it can be mistaken for a dead end (or vice versa).

This book is about navigating through dips and knowing the difference between dips, dead-ends, or dips that aren’t worthwhile to go through.

The Dip Creates World Class

• The Dip is something you MUST go through if you are to become world-class at something. It is a trial. A trial you will learn a lot from. That learning is crucial to gain mastery. You don’t learn unless you struggle through the low point in something worth doing.
• Because The Dip is difficult and many quit during it, it creates scarcity. Very few make it through The Dip. But those that do emerge world-class.
• This scarcity of world-class means the market will pay a premium for the value you offer. Thus, passing through a dip creates value through the barriers to entry it imposes.
• Being an overnight success is a myth. Those you believe are overnight successes have passed through the dip, hit Critical Mass, and are now world-class. The work being done before becoming the best in the world is not visible. Emerging from a dip as world-class is very visible. This is what perpetuates the myth of overnight success.
• Just like Blue Ocean Strategy and The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, being world-class doesn’t mean you have to be the best in the world in a very broad area.
• World-class is defined by the market. Millions of niches are out there where you can be the best in the world in. In some ways, being the best in the world is easier than it has been before because of the larger volume of different micro-markets.
  

Get Creative through The Dip

• Anything important to you, anything that will yield improvement to your performance, will require a dip. If there is no dip, it’s not worth doing. If there is no dip, there is no barrier to entry and therefore the market is saturated. You won’t be able to stand out in a crowded marketplace.
• You should try the things that scare you. They represent barriers to your growth and learning.
• Don’t try to “brute force” a dip. Don’t try to do the same thing over and over again. Get creative, flexible, and try different things to see what works. Make up your own rules to survive and pass a dip. The learning involved in trying new and innovative things is what leads to breakthroughs in helping you become world-class.
• You may become desperate when a dip is particularly difficult and will try new, crazy things that others haven’t thought of yet. This creativity is where you may gain a competitive edge.
  

When to Quit

• It’s okay to quit, as long as it’s strategic and well-thought-out. Quitting because a dip is hard is a bad idea. If you quit out of adversity, you are missing out on the opportunity to learn and become world-class.
• Strategic quitting involves acknowledging when you aren’t (or can’t) be world-class in something, or when something is leading to a dead end.
• Strategic quitting can free up substantial resources that can be redirected to the dips that will yield world-class results. Double down on these areas where you can be the best in the world.
• Quit anything that is a dead end. If it leads to nowhere, there is no point in investing any more time or money into it.
• If you believe you can be world-class in something, don’t quit. Power through it.
• Avoid quitting a strategy, but be willing to quit tactics.
• Tactics could be marketing techniques, products, features, designs, etc. Strategy could be markets, niches, or businesses. These shouldn’t be quit on a whim. Strategies take a long time to succeed. If you quit too early, you may have mistaken a dead-end from a dip.
• Define under what criteria you will quit something. Stick with that criteria, don’t deviate from it. This will help hold you accountable for sticking with the right things, and not wasting resources on the wrong things.