Can a Quitter Achieve Success?

True confessions ... I'm a quitter!  And now, everyone knows. Yesterday Seth Godin, author of a gazillion popular books on marketing, "outed" me on his new blog.

That's right. I've made his List of Quitters. Fortunately I'm in good company. My name is in the same paragraph as Tom Peters, Harrison Ford, Suze Orman and Jeff Bezos.

In his new book, The Dip: The Little Book that Teaches You When to Quit (And When to Stick), Seth challenges readers to take a serious look at themselves. According to him, "Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt - until they commit to beating the right Dip for the right reasons."

Mmmmm. Get's you thinking doesn't it.

- How can you quit sounding like a self-serving salesperson?
- If you quit talking so much, would you have more customers?
- What do you need to quit doing to have more time for high value activities?

So tell me, what do you need to quit?  Or, what have you already quit that has changed your life?

Quitting can definitely be a good thing!

Comments

[Terry McCahill]

Congratulations on your mention...what a great topic. I look forward to getting a copy of this book. Thank you for link to the Quitters blog!

[Patrick Kilhoffer]

Good article. Many first time business owners don't recognize when to quit doing things that aren't working and they end up adding on additional bad ideas to keep the first bad idea going.

Their part-time business isn't doing well, so they leave their full time job so they can fail full time instead of quitting the part time business.

Their inferior product isn't selling well, so they spend more money to advertise it instead of quitting selling an inferior product.

Their good product is being advertised to the wrong market, so they double their advertising budget instead of quitting marketing to the wrong people.

And the list goes on. Sometimes they listen when I tell them what they need to do. Frequently they get angry and insist that I "just don't get it" or "I'm not openminded enough".

And they are right, I don't get losing money on purpose and I'm not openminded enough to keep throwing money at something that won't work.

I'm going to quit writing now. :)

[Derek Mehraban]

Jill:

Excellent commentary. This book reminds me that I need to trim the things that get in the way of being the best in the world at what I do. This is difficult, because I like to help others and say yes often. But focus toward my goals is essential to being the best. I am currently working to trim down my activities to the essentials; family, developing business, helping my clients be the best in the world and a few others.

[james dipadua]

what's important to note though, is that there are certain activities that do require quiting while there are also others that require digging in and getting better.
from my experience, most people quit before they even get started. first obstacle and they're done. "too hard" "too much effort" whatever the reason that would be the reason most people settle with mediocrity.
i have not read godin's book yet but intend to do so in the near future.
i guess, regardless of what godin might argue, sometimes it's about identifying whether it's worth the fight. if not, then i agree, time to quit. if the goal is to be independently wealthy, then the first rejection can't be the last. think Edison's famous "one thousand" failures...

[SEGuy]

It's important to quit when you have other opportunities more fruitful to pursue.

If you find out that you are 'column fodder' or the customer has basically chosen a tool, and you are just there to show they tried looking, obviously it is a good time to get out.

Also, end of the quarter and a small prospect and a big prospect are all you have left, and you only have the resources to go after one of them. Which do you try?