The Dip

Being the best in the world is underrated

• “Quitters never win and winners never quit” is a bad advice. Winners quit all the time, they just quit the right stuff at the right time
• You can’t try to do everything, esp if you intend to be the best in the world (a micromarket)
• Zipf’s law : the frequencies of certain events are inversely proportional to their rank. It demonstrates the relative benefits of having a higher ranking
• Focus on the short, big, profitable head instead of the long tail
• Being the best/Quitting → creates scarcity → creates value
• Specialsit > Generalist (being well rounded). You don’t look for someone who is quite good at things you don’t need her to do

3 Curves in Life

➊ The Dip
➋ The Cul-de-sac
➌ The Cliff

• Almost everything in life worth doing is controlled by the Dip – the long slog between starting and mastery
• The real success goes to those who obsess
• Most people are afraid to quit – it’s easier to be mediocre than it’s to confront reality and quit
• If you can’t make it through the Dip, don’t start
• Create a Dip so long and so deep that the nascent competition can’t catch up
• Quit or be exceptional. Average is for losers
• The opposite of quitting is rededication – an invigorated new strategy designed to break the problem apart
• The Dip is not static, it’s flexible. It responds to the effort you put into it.

Three questions to ask before quitting

➊ Am I panicking

➋ Who am I trying to influence?

Influence one person is like scaling a wall. If you get over the wall the first few tires, you’re in. If you don’t. Often you’ll find that the wall gets higher with each attempt. Influencing a market is more of a hill than a wall. You can make progress, one step at a time, and as you get higher, it actually gets easier.

➌ What sort of measurable progress am I making?

Quitting a job is not quitting your quest to make a living or a difference or an impact. Quitting a job doesn’t have to mean giving up. A job is just a tactic, a way to get to what you really want. As soon as your job hits a dead end, it makes sense to quit and take your quest to a bigger marketplace – because every day you wait puts your goal further away. Persistence pays off across a market.

Quit before you start

• Decide in advance when to quit
• Outline the quitting strategy before the discomfort sets in. Write down under what circumstances you’re willing to quit
• In order to get through the Dip, you’ll need to quit everything else. If it’s not going to put a dent in the world, quit. Quit and use that void to find the energy to assult the Dip that matters
• If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try

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