The Tongues of Men

*Warning: this post has a dualism rating of 4 out of 5.*

When should you quit and when should you keep going? When are hard work, tedium and things taking ages something to give up on, and when are they signs that rare success can be attained?

Seth Godin’s concept of ‘the dip’ inspires me. (I can’t recommend Godin high enough. If you’re a leader or in business or teaching or are creative or admire inspiration or pyschology or marketing, or are trying to create something of value in the world like a company or family or charity or church – you must read Seth).

What’s the dip?

The dip is what happens after the new thing you started is no longer energised and fun. After things have been getting harder and less enjoyable, until they reach the low point of being bloody difficult and no fun at all.

Then you’re in the dip.

According to Godin, ‘winners seek out the dip’ because ‘they realise that the bigger the barrier, the bigger the reward for getting past it.’ The reason successful people seek out the draining and demanding graft of the dip is because they realise that:

a) success rarely comes without it, and
b) it will cause most other people to quit, so the rewards will be bigger.

It’s such an obvious idea, but it inspires me no end. I know that gritty determination is essential for success (in theory, at least). But what I love about the dip concept is the filtering process: we value what is scarce (diamonds/climbing Everest/winning the Booker), so the harder an achievement the more remarkable those who make it. By this definition the dip is not just a necessary evil to gain success, it is an ally in shaking off the competition to achieve greatness.

Winners quit

Careful though. Not all hard work is a dip. Godin also points out in his book that some tough situations are actually cul-de-sacs. No matter how much work you put in, things will never get better, and there is no way out. Your hard work will not lead to success. It is not a filter that cuts out the losers, because everyone who stays in the cul-de-sac will lose.

In the case of a cul-de-sac, winners quit. They give up quickly, without guilt, and go off to find a dip worth pushing through.

Losers, on the other hand, surrender during dip times, stick at it in cul-de-sacs, and never find the right dip to conquer.

Why do we stay in cul-de-sacs when life is so short? Pride? Denial? Conservatism bias? Fear of real failure – the kind when you could have succeeded but didn’t, as opposed to the kind where you worked your hardest and ‘it wasn’t to be’? Fear of success?

Either way, I’m sure that we can have something invested in going round in circles in a cul-de-sac instead of finding a worthwhile dip that can be conquered. Instead of succeeding at something remarkable.

So why am I thinking about giving up?

I’m not. I’ve just been thinking about the nature of giving up.

Why would I quit now? I’m just getting into the dip.