Quit to Win

"Never, never, never quit," said Winston Churchill.

We've all heard this sentiment echoed repeatedly in grade-school gym class, college physics and company slogans.

That's why Seth Godin's diminutive new book, coming out in May, seems so scandalous.

In The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (And When to Stick), Godin says winners actually quit all the time, and he enthusiastically encourages the practice.

He's is not some senile schoolteacher but the author of eight other worldwide bestsellers including Purple Cow. He is also the founder of Squidoo.com (a platform of user-generated pages) and a popular blogger.

In just 76 pages, Godin explains how people win biggest by getting through the dip, "the long, difficult stretch between starting something and mastering it," according to Godin.

While we may cringe in anguish at the thought of that long slog, Godin says that the dip is actually the quickest way to get you where you want.

But only stick with the dips that are likely to work out; otherwise, strategically quit when your situation looks like a cul-de-sac (what Godin defines as a situation where you work and things stay the same) or a cliff (a situation where you can't quit until you fall off).

"People often look at me like I'm crazy," says Godin. "The breakthrough that happens with the dip is that it gives people permission to believe something that they've known all along -- that they quit all the time, and most of the time, they quit at the wrong time," he explains, adding that quitting can actually become part of a strategy for success when an individual, corporation or small business sees it as a choice.