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Winners know when to quit.

To those of you who have not read Seth Godin’s new book “The Dip” I recommend that you immediately find a copy. It’s listed in my recommended books section.

Godin explains the “dip” as a barrier between where we are and the rarefied territory of superstars who’ve made it across to reap the disproportionally rich rewards offered them. These folks have been faced with many options, most likely, and “quit” all but those they knew they could conquer. To maintain tangental, medocre projects that you aren’t really leaning into is to suck the life from your ability to rise to the top.

• In your web project, do you have parts that dead-end, with little chance of making you the best in your industry?
• Are there areas you should focus on in hopes of reaching the other side of the dip, joining the elite players of your business?
• Are you ready to sort those out, focus on the ones that matter and discard the rest?

If so, let’s do it, systematically, and determine which are the real “dips” you’re facing - and which are the cul-de-sacs. I’m going to be doing it, too.

One of the most promenant “dips” faced by my clients is the one encountered during testing. It’s excrutiating to wait for research or a/b split results. It’s often unpleasent to learn that what your intuition told you about a products’ opportunity doesn’t bear out. This process is the dip. It’s not easy, it’s not fast. To quit within this period is to throw out the essence of “Finding the Sweet Spot.” - all is lost.

To learn which opportunities are dead-ends and which are just dips to be crossed is a skill posessed only by the best.

Which is the winning strategy?

Not only should my potential clients ask them these questions - but so should I. Each entrepreneur or company I encounter piles a new set of ideas and projects on the table - each with their own profiles, opportunities, closeness to the goal. And I also plot my business’ interest in those goals, choosing clients as they choose me, based on what they lean into, and what they quit.

So, I am going to be isolating the cul-de-sacs in my business. There are parts that shouldn’t be taking my time or energy. Others need more. I could be doing much more in Social Search Marketing if I wasn’t dealing with certain technical hassles related to areas of my business that simply shouldn’t exist. I am already listed in Seth’s roster of quitters, and now … I’m doing some more of it.

What are the areas I want to be the best in the world? Where should I simply quit? Where am I providing “average” service, and where am I extrodinary? Lots of big questions that I think will push my firm ahead. Your ideas and suggestions are always appreciated.

Well there’s a new book coming out that I had a part in and as soon as I get my copy, I’ll report on it… and probably write about it in Business Lexington, too. I applaud David Meerman Scott’s clever method to get lots of smart bloggers and their page rank to post links to his blog. Like I’m doing now. Nice. He has shown some awareness of the new rules of PR in the way he got the blog buzz going. I was thrilled to be listed with some of the writers and bloggers I already admire, such as Seth Godin, Robert Scoble, Guy Kawasaki, and Lee Odden. So thanks David, watch this space. I’ll be checking the book out soon.  I’m also checking out some of the other bloggers that you mentioned in your book post, and may post links to some of those, too!
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The scene… headhunter staff meeting….

“What are we looking for?” Â
  … “we need some quitters!”Â
“Yes… yes, but how do we get them???”

Seth Godin, my favorite author by far, just published a list of quitters (people who have quit one path and shifted to another, and found even more success) that includes people you’ll recognize, such as Jeff Foxworthy, Tom Peters, Bill Gates, me.  WTF? Well, I left the Silicon Valley scene for Kentucky and it was just wierd enough I guess.  But the escape from the cubicle-rut let me do what I love in such a beautiful place… and to get really good at it.”

“I was working cubicles in the Silicon Valley, working on software that would never see the light of day, for people who didn’t care one way or another. I worked with great people, but we all sort of did the work for academic reasons… preparing ourselves for something later.  The pattern was always the same. New manager. Corporate Offsite. New vision statement on coffee mug. Lots of coding.  Late nighters. Project changes. Ship, dilution, or cancellation. Bug fixing. Is anyone using product? Does anyone like it? Repeat.”

….I quit that, and now do this.

But Seth is asking people to look inside for a path that suits them. I’ve heard many times that you should “do what you love and the money will follow.” I think Seth is saying that you should “cut your losses” quickly and find the groove you belong in. It’s not a defeat to quit. It’s not the end of the world, and you are not going to shrivel and die. It’s like testing on the web a bit. You are probably NOT going to get it right the first time. You will have to observe what is happening around you, you’ll need to make a call. But make it. Get out from under the losing situations and try until you get it right.Â

I find the story is told in Pink Floyd’s “Time”:

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but its sinking
And racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in the relative way, but youre older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the english way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought Id something more to say…..(Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd)

During a short flight I devoured Steve Wozniac’s autobiography iWoz which traced his life from childhood with his Dad’s “secret government tech job” all the way to his current philanthropic pursuits. It’s a terrific read, especially if you spent time in the Silicon Valley in the 80s and 90s (I did) and worked with Apple (I did.) But Woz has a great way of projecting excitement about being an engineer, discovering, optimizing, and overcoming hardships. This book makes a great pairing for the “The Second Coming of Steve Jobs” (another good book) but Woz sticks to his own contribution to the computer industry… which was huge and often overlooked or underreported. Put simply, Steve Wozniac pushed personal computing forward a decade if not more.

The fun thing about was thinking back about some of the engineering grunt work that I did starting my career as Steve talks about his own. Woz starts by discussing his work on the MOS6502 processor (I wrote assembly language for that processor, like he did) and then talking about squeezing insane amounts of power out of small, compact chips (Some of my career was doing this too.) He talked a lot about the Apple II and IIc, which I never owned. I took the Color Computer Route (TRS-80) in High School as the Apples were simply too expensive for me.

Woz’s book gets surprisingly personal, also - he talks about his marital difficulties and quite a bit about how he struggled personally with life.

I enjoyed every bit of it, and strongly recommend the book. I’m looking forward to seeing Steve speak at the Idea Festival this fall.