Motivation poster seen lately: “Optimism : Obstacles are just stepping stones to success.”
Do you cringe, run, hide when things get difficult? ‘Things’ getting difficult just might be an indication that you’re on the right path, if only you’d keep on keeping on! Read on…
I’ve been reading Seth Godin’s book The Dip, and this short little book has changed my perspective.
What happens at around mile 20 of a 26 mile race (marathon)? Many non-elite runners experience what is called “The Wall”. Those who prepare for it either don’t experience the wall, or are able to push through it. “The Wall” is partly a physical barrier, i.e. glycogen stores are low, the aches and pains accumulated over the course of the race so far are talking your mind out of finishing. The Wall is largely mental though. At meeting the wall, you must decide: are the rewards of finishing the marathon greater than the cost of continuing?
How does the wall gives an advantage to the runners who can surpass it? It weeds out the competition, creating scarcity… in a market economy this is a good thing if you are doing the marketing. The bigger the dip you’ve pushed through, the greater your chances of being “The Best in the World.” There are incredible marketing advantages to being number one versus any other number. Market share may be linear from number two down, but the share number one achieves breaks that curve.
In The Dip, Godin also discusses when it is a good idea to quit and concentrate your resources elsewhere, coining the phrase “strategic quitting.” Want to know more? You can buy it here: The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)
The Dip is a small book, only 80 pages, including blanks and title pages, but there is no fluff here; it’s all value. Thank goodness it’s not priced proportionally to the value within, or no one could afford a copy.
I can totally buy into the premise of this book. I started my professional career as a marine biologist. I loved it, but there were so many kids coming out of college who wanted to be marine biologists that the market for that skill set was flooded. I looked at my supervisor, who had been in the field for something like fifteen years at the time, and he was only making maybe $15,000 more than I was starting out, and I figured the stress-level and experience differential between his job and my job was worth a heck of a lot more than that. Through a series of fortunate opportunities, I ended up leaving the marine biology field and entering the IT world with both feet. The initial jump doubled my salary off the bat. In the nine years since, my salary has continued to increase to the point where I’m now making roughly 2.5x’s what my old boss was making with 15 years’ experience, and at roughly the same stress-level. And I haven’t had a hard-head catfish spine go through my boot and arch of my foot in nearly a decade now. Well worth it!
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