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The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) Hardcover – May 10, 2007

by Seth Godin (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 6,142 ratings
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A New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestseller

In this iconic bestseller, popular business blogger and bestselling author Seth Godin proves that winners are really just the best quitters. Godin shows that winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt—until they commit to beating the right Dip.

Every new project (or job, or hobby, or company) starts out fun…then gets really hard, and not much fun at all. You might be in a Dip—a temporary setback that will get better if you keep pushing. But maybe it’s really a Cul-de-Sac—a total dead end. What really sets superstars apart is the ability to tell the two apart.

Winners seek out the Dip. They realize that the bigger the barrier, the bigger the reward for getting past it. If you can beat the Dip to be the best, you’ll earn profits, glory, and long-term security.
Whether you’re an intern or a CEO, this fun little book will help you figure out if you’re in a Dip that’s worthy of your time, effort, and talents. The old saying is wrong—winners do quit, and quitters do win.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    96 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Portfolio
  4. Publication date
    May 10, 2007
  5. Dimensions
    5.13 x 0.53 x 7.28 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1591841666
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1591841661
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

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.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"A short read that should be on every entrepreneur's book list."—Entrepreneur.com
 
"Absolutely delightful, combining his wise aphorisms and anecdotes with Hugh MacLeod's darkly brilliant business-card cartoons."—Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Portfolio; First Edition (May 10, 2007)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 96 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1591841666
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1591841661
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.13 x 0.53 x 7.28 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 6,142 ratings

About the author

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Seth Godin

Seth Godin

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Seth Godin is the author of 20 international bestsellers that have been translated into over 38 languages, and have changed the way people think about marketing and work. For a long time, Unleashing the Ideavirus was the most popular ebook ever published, and Purple Cow is the bestselling marketing book of the decade.

He worked as a year as the volunteer founding editor of The Carbon Almanac, and his recent bestsellers also include The Practice and This is Marketing.

He's a recent inductee to the Marketing Hall of Fame, and also a member of the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame and (go figure), the Guerrilla Marketing Hall of Fame.

His book, Tribes, was a nationwide bestseller, appearing on the Amazon, New York Times, BusinessWeek and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. It's about the most powerful form of marketing--leadership--and how anyone can now become a leader, creating movements that matter.

His book Linchpin came out in 2008 and was the fastest-selling book of his career. Linchpin challenges you to stand up, do work that matters and race to the top instead of the bottom. More than that, though, the book outlines a massive change in our economy, a fundamental shift in what it means to have a job.

In addition to his writing and speaking, Seth was founder and CEO of Squidoo.com,. His blog (find it by typing "seth" into Google) is the most popular marketing blog in the world. Before his work as a writer and blogger, Godin was Vice President of Direct Marketing at Yahoo!, a job he got after selling them his pioneering 1990s online startup, Yoyodyne.

He's known as a pioneer in online education, and was the founder of the altMBA.

You can find every single possible detail that anyone could ever want to know at sethgodin.com

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
6,142 global ratings
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5 Stars
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I bought this book along with my other 4 books and they all arrived in perfect condition.I am currently reading this and I must say that even though I'm only on pg 35 now, I've learnt so much from this book and it took me to see things in another perspective. This book is so far absolutely amazing and it really made me think about my own path, what journey do I really want.If you want to think about changing your life or you are not sure if you are progressing in life, this book is by far the best for you without a doubt.
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Top reviews from the United States

Brian Sabin
5.0 out of 5 stars Simple, scary and useful
Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2024
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The Dip challenges you to critically examine why you feel so comfortable - and asks what you are truly capable of. Seth’s examples are illustrative and clarifying, and I think you’ll find them helpful. I did.
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Anupam Malhotra
4.0 out of 5 stars Embrace "Dips"...stay away from "Cliffs" and "Cul-de-Sacs"
Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2007
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"The Dip" by Seth Godin is a short book with a message that resonates close to the issue of the "honeymoon period" that many people have with projects, companies, and relationships. The author's basic hypothesis is that anything that is worth doing usually starts off with a period where efforts lead to rewards but that soon turns into a high effort / low reward situation for a while before it picks up a faster pace and heads back up...sometimes way up.

Plotting effort vs. reward on a graph, you see the line take a "dip" after the initial period and that's the reason for the title. The author indicates that it is precisely in the Dip that too many people quit, and never actually get to the point of becoming so good at what they do that they can then enjoy the rewards that come later. He says that this is an important barrier that helps separate the truly committed from the not-so-committed ones. He also says that most work starts out feeling like "Dip" projects but some of them are actually "Cliffs" which may have a longer growth period but never recover from the steep downturn at the end. Additionally, some projects are "Cul-de-Sacs" where you continue to put in effort but never get any reward or get anywhere.

Seth provides examples to help identify the three types of situations and provides some guidelines on how to decide when to quit Cliffs or Cul-de-Sacs. I'm not sure the guidelines are that good, but I think the concepts of Dip, Cliffs, and Cul-de-Sacs are pretty real. Most people that quit probably do so either because suffering the dip is not worth the potential rewards later in their minds, or they have decided that the situation is a likely Cliff or Cul-de-Sac.

Overall a good book that is short and easy to read and provides a good framework for making personal and professional decisions.
7 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Unusually Intelligent
Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2024
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I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to be remarkable and change the world. Read this book and internalize it.
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Grace A
5.0 out of 5 stars This book challenges the status quo
Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2023
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This book is quite engaging and helps one to see many different angles of a matter to evaluate whether or not it is time to quit. It helps us see we need to exert our energy and efforts in things that serve our purpose and we need to do our best. No more coping when clearly there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. No more mediocrity because we are scared to make the quitting decision. Am encouraged that I am great at something and I’m now equipped to know when it is time to quit!!!
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Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars Some good information, but limited and hyperbolic
Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2021
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This book was recommended to me by a work colleague, and it's a short, quick read. The main point of the book seems to me to circle around an idea that is common sense: when people approach a task - marketing a new product, picking up a new skill, and so on - they need to persevere through the dip. The dip is that period of time when the work involved feels difficult and overwhelming, and the temptation to quit becomes pressing. The author contends that the difference between people who succeed, and those who fail, can be traced back to whether or not they pushed through the dip. If they make it through that slump, then they are rewarded with the money or recognition or expertise that most other people never achieve.

The reason a lot of this felt like common sense to me was because I believe most people recognize that after the excitement of starting on a new project, there inevitably comes a time where the gloss of starting something new wears off, and we hit a slump. To me, that slump is the dip. The work feels harder, and it's easy to just stop. Most of this book is encouragement to not stop, using rhetoric such as anecdotes and hyperbole. The book also notes that the steeper the dip - the harder it is to finish, the greater the odds that are stacked against you are - the more success that awaits for those who get through it. I think all of this sounds reasonable, and matches what I've personally experienced when it comes to taking on new challenges. I also thought it was interesting that Godin provided descriptions of two other paths that might seem like a dip, but aren't: the cul-de-sac and the cliff. The cul-de-sac describes work that will never go anywhere no matter how hard people work, and the cliff describes work that seems to be going well before it abruptly collapses in failure.

It's important to recognize that these other scenarios exist, because it's naive to believe that if things aren't going well, it's just the dip, and if you work hard enough you'll eventually succeed. However, very little time is devoted to how people can distinguish between the dip, a cul-de-sac, or a cliff. Considering that the main advice of this book is to keep going when things get tough, I would have appreciated much more explanation of how to tell if I actually am in the dip, or if my hard work isn't going to go anywhere after all. Also, I was put off by the book's voice and style. The author uses a lot of hyperbole, along the lines of: if you're not number one, then you fail! If you're not a winner, you're a loser! This kind of pep talk does not motivate me; on the contrary, it actually distances me from the message. Also, the book incorporates fake math graphs - no numerical data on the x and y axis, no explanation of the research that informed the graphs. In fact, at one point, the book declares that if someone were to create a graph about a certain subject, it would probably look like ... Basically, the graphs are just made up based on how the writer thinks they should look, and that kind of nonsense data bothers me. If you don't have actual numbers, use a different kind of visual device. To sum up, I agreed with the book's main premise, but I wanted it be more fully explained in a more objective manner, and I find the style of the book jarring.
40 people found this helpful
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Kurt C. Davis
5.0 out of 5 stars Understanding when to quit
Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2024
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Very important to read before you start your company!! Outlining when to quit before it gets hard is brilliant advice.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Guilherme Carvalho
5.0 out of 5 stars Lendo sem saber inglês
Reviewed in Brazil on April 2, 2024
Verified Purchase
Comprei alguns livros em inglês para praticar e este esta sendo ótimo livro para esta finalidade. A linguagem é simples então consigo compreende-lo bem, é um livro curto e direto. O conteúdo é excelente. Valeu muito a pena.
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Frank Aguilera
5.0 out of 5 stars Rapido de leer, directo al grano
Reviewed in Mexico on February 9, 2024
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Es un libro muy rapido de leer, es delgado. Va directo al grano, literal habla sobre lo cuando debes renunciar a algo y cuando no. Me gusto que no da tantas vueltas a las cosas, directo a la idea.
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Robert Yarotsky
5.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly useful book to determine what to quit
Reviewed in Canada on June 29, 2022
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This book makes it easy to understand what you should quit and what is worth toughing out to get outsized rewards. Short and well written.
One person found this helpful
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Michael
5.0 out of 5 stars absolute must read for all entrepreneurs, creators and sportspeople
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 2, 2024
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Such an important book. It is one of those books that basically makes the point it tells you in the title. BUT it makes the point in a lucid, persuasive and intelligent way. I think this is a very important book for anyone ambitious to read.
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Lubos
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!
Reviewed in Germany on December 26, 2023
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Useful and true!
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