When to Quit

The small book start with a quote.

Winner never quit, quitter never win - Vince Lambardi

Not totally right. Winner does quit. All the time. The smartest quitters are those who never begin if they know they are not going to be the best.

It’s time to quit when you secretly realize you’ve been settling for mediocrity all along. It’s time to quit when the things you’re measuring aren’t improving, and you can’t find anything better to measure.

This book is NOT about quitting. It is about how to identify whether you need to quit or to stick. Whether it is a dip where you have chance to move to be the best. Or a dead-end or cliff, where you either are stuck forever or you fall off. Only you can decide for yourself. And this book is the guidelines.

Reasons When to Quit:

1. Out of Money
   - If you do not have the money to start a business and able to stand hardship (recession, etc.) . Don't do that.
   
   
2. Out of Time
   - You only have 24 hours a day and you need enough sleep and time to relax. This is to maintain your health and for you to go on doing greater things. Do not try to stuff more into your packed schedule if you cannot take on more.
   
   
3. You are getting scared
   - You feel threaten and no secured. Just like your bully husband who came back drunk and hit you once in a while. You live in fear whether you will get hit again. Quit before it is too late.
   
   
4. You are getting not serious
   - When you are fooling around. You can fool everyone but yourself.
   
   
5. Lost interest or enthusiasm and settle for being mediocre
   - If you are not the best, quit! Never settle for mediocrity. Never stick just because of pride.
   
   
6. Focus on short term
   - You cannot envision what is the future. You cannot plan ahead.
   
   
7. Pick up the wrong thing. You absolutely have no talent.
   - You definitely do not have talents for all the things. Pick the one you have talent in. For e.g. if you need to study very hard to get a good mark in Maths, whereas you know a person who did not study but get a good mark too - that is a signal for you not to become a mathematician.
   
   Also,
8. When the dip isn't worth the reward at the end.
9. When you hit the dead-end (cul-de-sac)- something not going to get better or too high- Just like you are walking over to the cliff. You will fall off if you are not careful.
   

Reasons to Stick:

1. Never quit a long term potential just because you can't deal with the stress at the moment.
2. Study showed sales person usually quit at the 5th attempt. 80% of the customers buy at 7th attempt.
3. You should quit product/feature/design but you should not quit strategy/niche.
4. Persistent people visualize the idea of light at the end of the tunnel.
5. Do not quit when it is painful.

3 Questions to ask before quiting:

1. Am I panicking?
2. Who am I trying to influence?
3. What sort of measurable progress I am making?

The author also said - the time to look for new job is when you don't need one. The time to switch job is before it feels comfortable.

More information on the book:

http://www.squidoo.com/theDipBook/
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/04/the_big_dip_ten.html

Note: This is just a very small book. You can finish it within 3 hours. So, I recommend you either buy it to lend to friends or you borrow from your friends. :). Or you can do it like me - read in Borders while having a nice coffee.

I think this book lost some of it flows. Like the author is trying to tell us something , but do not know how to organize the information to put all the messages across. Well, I began reading the book, hoping to get an answer few months ago (on whether to quit or stick) . I did NOT get one. But, I always want to come back to this book and ponder more. I also understand more and I will be more careful next time when starting new things so I will not need to ponder whether I need to quit (or not).

But I recently decided to quit and start something new. Never in many years, have I wanted to quit with such certainty and passion that made me dream about it several nights and long for the new things that may be waiting for me. But I am still waiting . Waiting for an answer. The answer will seal my fate. And I am praying hard.