the dip: a little book that teaches you when to quit (and when to stick), by seth godin.

seth godin’s writing has had a huge impact on me and on youth specialties. it was his book, purple cow, that — about 3 1/2 years ago now — was the tipping point (ha! title confusion!) into ys starting a massive internal campaign of change, which i’ve blogged about extensively, here (missional vs. competency-based), here (ys’ prophetic voice), here (a utopian vision of the future of ys), most fully described here (ys reboot day #2), and here (one year anniversary of the reboot). so i’m usually pretty quick to pick up godin’s new books and devour them.

the dip is godin’s newest book; and, it seems to me his last couple haven’t been as original or strong as previous stuff. this book is one powerful, brilliant, must-read idea: every idea, person and organization goes through a dip (in success, ease, fun, roi, whatever) at some point, often rather early on. it’s important to know when to quit (quitting is good) and when to push through the dip.

at about 60 pages, the dip is, perhaps, the thinnest, shortest hardcover book i have ever read. here’s what’s odd: it’s way too long. it’s such a great idea, and i DO recommend reading it. but it’s an article — a brilliant article — and should have been 1/3 the length it is.

anyhow. if it’s worth reading (which it is), and only takes about 30 minutes to read (which it does), there’s not a lot of sense in complaining about its wordiness or repetition. lots of personal and organizational application.