Book Review: The Dip by Seth Godin
So, despite how lifeless this blog appears, it isn’t entirely dead. It’s merely been on hiatus as I’ve struggled to figure out why I’m doing it, what I’m doing with it, and whether it’s worthwhile to keep doing it. In short, I’ve been navel-gazing and procrastinating, two things I’m really good at.
Enter The Dip, a little book that teaches you when to quit (and when to stick) by Seth Godin. I read it twice through and have been thinking about it ever since. It is both inspiring and maddening. I’m grateful to this book because it is the reason that I decided to write again. It has gotten me to refocus on this blog, decide that it is a worthwhile pursuit, and give me the motivation to get through my own dip.
The point of the book is simple:
“Quit the wrong stuff. Stick with the right stuff. Have the guts to do one or the other (p. 4).”
Godin argues that being the best in the world is the thing that matters most because tremendous rewards come to those who are the best. Since your time, energy, and resources are limited, you want to spend those wisely and the only wise way to spend them is in pursuit of becoming the best. In order to do that, you need to quit working on all the things that suck up your time, energy, and resources but that will not bring you closer to being the best, and instead, focus those efforts on the one thing you do well that will bring you success.
He argues that any pursuit is governed by two major curves: A Dip and a Cul-de-Sac. A Dip happens during any worthwhile pursuit and is the “long slog between starting and mastery.” It is the point when the fun in your pursuit disappears and you are left with the difficult, annoying, boring, or painful tasks to get through in order to succeed at your pursuit. The Cul-de-Sac is a dead-end and it’s the situation “where you work and you work and you work and nothing much changes. It doesn’t get a lot better, it doesn’t get a lot worse. It just is.” He argues that you need to lean into the Dip and get through it but quit a Cul-de-Sac immediately when you’re facing one to free up your resources for a more meaningful pursuit.
This is not a message that is new or earth shattering but Godin makes it fresh and sharp by making you realize that this is the only question you must ask yourself if you want to do anything worthwhile.
But the book stops there. He’s delivered the motivational message and left it on your doorstep without any further instructions. Ironically, it’s as if he doesn’t have the energy or desire to get through his own Dip to deliver the deeper, more complex information that would be truly useful. Godin thinks he’s teaching you when to quit and when to stick but he doesn’t actually do this. Instead, he just labels the two situations you may find yourself in and refers you to them. Either you are in a Dip or you are in a Cul-de-Sac. If you’re in a Dip, then keep going. If you’re in a Cul-de-Sac, then quit.
Well, sure. If we knew the difference between a Dip and a Cul-de-Sac, we’d all be wildly successful. But we don’t, and there’s the rub. That’s why life is hard, situations ambiguous, and we spin our wheels doing something worthless that we only recognize as worthless in retrospect and kick ourselves for quitting something that would have panned out if only we’d have stuck with it.
I therefore can’t recommend the book unequivocally. While it has a worthwhile message, it doesn’t give you any criteria for identifying Dips and Cul-de-Sacs. If what you need is a kick in the pants, then get this book. You will enjoy it and it will make you think. I can’t deny that the book has had a large, positive impact on my thinking. I keep coming back to it over and over to skim certain parts. In that way, it’s worthwhile because it has re-energized me. However, if you are already motivated and are looking for Godin to provide you with a how-to, you’ll be disappointed.
