I recently read Seth Godin’s mini-book called “The Dip“. It’s a book about knowing when to quit, “strategic quitting”. Similar to Geoffrey Moore’s “Crossing The Chasm“, the ‘dip’ appears to be the chasm that we often get stuck in when trying to make a new venture happen. It’s that period of time (often fairly long) where the product or service just doesn’t seem to take off. It’s the really tough time. The time when you think you should just bag the whole thing… or continue to push through the darkness. Fortunately, those that survive the dip benefit from the length and severity of the darkeness they experienced because it #1) makes them stronger & #2) creates barriers to entry & success for competitors.

Here are a handful of phrases and key points I pulled out of the book:

“In a free market, we reward the exceptional.”

“Strategic quitting is the secret of successful organizations.”

“Successful people don’t just ride out the Dip. They push harder, changing the rules as they go. Just because you know you’re in the Dip doesn’t mean you have to live happily with it. Dips don’t last quite as long when you whittle at them.”

“The Dip creates scarcity; scarcity creates value.”

“In a competitive world, adversity is your ally.”

“In almost every field, the competitor that’s first with a big, aggressive sales force has a huge advantage.”

“Selling is about a transference of emotion, not a presentation of facts. If it were just a presentation of fats, then a PDF flyer or a Web site would be sufficient to make the phone ring.”

“Only a tiny portion of the audience (market) is looking for the brand-new thing. Most people are waiting for the tested, the authenticated, and the proven.”

So, how do you tell the difference between a ‘dip’ and a death spiral? When should you pull the rip cord? Do we have the guts to bail out? Unfortunately, the book isn’t long enough to go into those details… we’re on our own.