Knowing When to Quit: How to Recognize When it’s Time to Move On and Pursue Something New
I was discussing about the status of one of my projects with my manager and have some questions in mind. The project was a 0->1 project, with a really impactful goal, but technically hard and complex. I spend ~1.5 months to get into a point. Still there was a lot of work to do, but as time progressed I was getting stressed out because at the end I should prove the impact. No one will reward you or give you a good performance rating, just because you find a gap and tried to solve it, created a good architectural document and write a good code. I had the following questions in mind:
- how to make decisions about whether invest more into a project?
- should I hold it until things change or things become more stable?
- or should I quit and gave up on this project now?
It seemed impossible to know this at that point and I was quite confused. My manager suggested me to read a book about that.
The book was “The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit” by Seth Godin. It is a relatively short book ~80 pages, easy to read and I finished it in 1 day. This was the first time that I was reading a book by Seth Godin, eventhough I heard his name quite a few times. I will share my learnings from that book aiming that it will help you if you feel the same or be in the similar situation.
Three curves in life
Seth claims that there are three curves in life that people face in life they are cul-de-sac, the cliff and the dip. Let’s dive into each of them one by one:
1. The Cul De Sac
The first curve that Seth mentions in cul-de-sac, aka dead end curve. It is ia metaphor for a situation or path in life that has reached a dead end or has limited potential for growth or improvement. If you are in this, you work and work and work, and nothing changes, it is constant, steady and boring. You need to quit from this immediately.
2. The Cliff
The second type of curve is the cliff. This is also quite dangerous if you don’t quit on time. In this type of efforts, you think what you work on is quite promising and might have a good return on investment. However, all of a sudden, everything drops off rapidly and you lost it all. You need to realize this before and quit without putting too much effort on this as well. Seth provides some examples to clarify this and he gave the smoking example. It is addictive and you think nothing will happen. However, if you keep investing on this, at some point there will be irrecoverable consequences.
3. The Dip
What is the Dip? Are you feeling the same that, when you start a new project or a work you are sooo motivated, energetic, focusing easily and enjoying your work. These feelings last for a few weeks but as time progresses there is a decline. And there comes a time where you don’t have a motivation, you lost your track, you don’t want to spend time, you got worries and you just want to quit!
Relax, you are not alone. Seth Godin claims that this happens to everyone, whether you are in a project, pushing for promotion, building a business or even in love. Seth claims that, this is the point that distinguishes the successful from the others and you can be the best in the world! The below figure visualizes the dip and the potential gain if you put more effort while you are in there.
Perseverance vs Strategic Quitting
I love the word perseverance and I have a story to tell here: During the first year of Meta, I had some struggles on the work and on my project. During our performance conversations my manager told me that one of my strenghts was the perseverance. I did work a lot to deliver a hard project and I was about to do it just on the last day. It was painful but worth it. For me this was the dip moment, I knew the outcome and result of the delivery of the project and I keep pushing and pushing.
However, next year I was working on a different project. A new domain, technically complex etc. I did spent about 9 months time on the project but with 9 months there was no real case scenario and real impact. At that time, I organized a project review meeting to discuss the current scenario and my decision with the stakeholders. After the meeting I decided to quit! The question my manager asked me at those times where, why didn’t you quit before? Could you somehow realized the dead-end and quit earlier? The similar question to ask yourself or motto to follow here is “fail-fast”
7 Reasons You Might Fail To Become Best In The World
Seth provides 7 reasons that most people quit and they loose chance to be successful.
- you run out of time (and quit)
- you run out of money (and quit)
- you get scare (and quit)
- you’re not serious about it (and quit)
- you lose interest or enthusiasm and settle for mediocre (and quit)
- you focus on the short term instead of the long term (and quit when the short term gets too hard)
- OR — you pick the wrong thing to be best in the world at and never make it
Take Away
I hope the article helps you on the next decisions. While reading the book, I feel like the message is repeated many times and the book can be even shorter than 80 pages. I believe, the book can be summarized in one sentence as: “Success demands the courage to quit unproductive things and persist with the beneficial ones.” If you can see light at the end of tunnel, don’t quit in the dip, be patient work hard and you will be rewarded. But if there is no gain a dead end (cul-de-sa) or most likely a loss at the end (the cliff), do not waste your time and energy and quit immediately, don’t be afraid to quit. The book clarifies what everyone knows or feels, but provides a very good structure with clear examples for better understanding.
