There are many books that discuss success and how to think and be successful… There are many business books that highlight the importance of opportunity cost (and sunk cost) evaluation in strategic planning… But I know of only one book that merges the two, and redefines success with the idea of strategic quitting.

Seth Godin’s book The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) is short and effective. It certainly made me question the wisdom of “Never give up, never surrender!” In many ways, I followed Seth’s logic when I left Amazon.com after 5 months of employment. Quitting is an emotional process, otherwise my decision would have come 2 months earlier!

Seth’s book doesn’t offer a recipe for determining if something is worthwhile to quit. That is a process of self-reflection where you ask yourself: will it/I be remarkable, will it/I be best in the world, or in my case “is this what I want to be known for?” You have to determine those questions for yourself, based on your definition of success.

Strategic quitting is key to aligning yourself towards success, but making sure not to quit too early while in The Dip is also Seth’s message. Yes, getting through The Dip is hard, and that is the point: “The Dip creates scarcity, scarcity creates value.” And, value is created when you lean into the Dip, where you push harder and change the rules. Not when you just chug along…