This curve occurs when you work extremely hard, but nothing changes. To be highly successful, you should find as steep a dip as you can and quit all pursuits with a dead-end (cul-de-sac). So, choose your ‘tree’ appropriately and persevere if it is not a cul-de-sac or cliff. A woodpecker would be more successful by tapping 20,000 times on a single tree than tapping twenty times on a thousand trees. Godin uses an analogy to explain this point. The biggest obstacles to success in life are the Cul-de-Sacs and the Cliffs. So, dips create scarcity, and scarcity creates value.Ĭurves 2 and 3: The Cul-de-Sac and the Cliff One of the most essential features of a dip is that others within your domain will likely be struggling too. If your pursuit is worth doing, then it is worth fighting through the dip. Then, quitting right in the middle of the dip. The stupid thing to do is start something and waste time and money into overcoming the dip. Several people do what Godin calls the ‘stupid thing’ when encountering the dip. If you do, you will be too ill-equipped to make it through the dip. Godin suggests the smart thing is to not bother starting tasks that are too difficult. As well as being brave, you also have to be smart. On the other side, you will benefit from being the best in the world.
The brave thing to do in life is tough out the dips and end up on the other side. Instead, we are looking for the best Merlot from a specific region that can be delivered to your home later that day. For example, niches and specialization are becoming increasingly important. Conversely, the world is getting smaller in other ways. So, you have to be better than a considerably larger number of people. The competition is always one click away. The internet has made the world considerably bigger than it used to be.īeing better than 98% of the competition used to be fine, but it’s useless in the world of Google. When considering becoming the best in the world, you have to accept that the world is changing. Instead, he explains you need to be the best for you, right now, based on what you believe and know. Crucially, Godin does not necessarily mean the best anybody could ever be. If you are not going to be the best, then you should just quit. Therefore, you need to do everything in your power to become the best. With limited time and opportunity to experiment, we intentionally narrow our choices to those at the top. Zipf’s law suggests a non-linear relationship whereby rewards reduce exponentially. This is Zipf’s law and is found in almost all fields. Godin points out that, on average, first place generally gets ten times the winnings of whoever places tenth. But the result of this obsession is that rewards are heavily skewed. Similarly, we reward those employees that are performing the best. We give plaudits to the song or sports person that sits at the top of the charts. Our society obsesses over those who are number one. You must persevere with all other pursuits, no matter how hard, so that you can become the best in your world. You must quit the cul-de-sacs and cliffs so you can reallocate resources. This dip is one of three things: an opportunity, a cul-de-sac, or a cliff.
Seth Godin calls this challenging period a dip. Eventually, you will hit a low point in your pursuits. But after this initial excitement, the project will get harder and less fun. The Dip builds on Seth Godin’s insights introduced on his blog titled ‘The four curves of want and get.’ Every new project starts out exciting and fun. He also runs a blog named in 2009, by Time, as one of the 25 best blogs. In 2018, Godin was inducted into the American Marketing Association’s Marketing Hall of Fame.
Free Prize Inside won Forbes’ Business Book of the Year in 2004, while The Dip was a Business Week and New York Times bestseller. Seth Godin is the author of over 18 books. Seth Godin is an American author and former ‘dot com’ business executive. To learn the juicy details and support the author, order the book or get the audiobook for free.About Seth Godin Has The Dip been gathering dust on your bookshelf? Instead, pick up the key ideas now.ĭon't you already have the book? We’re scratching the surface here. StoryShots Analysis and Summary of The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) by Seth Godin