Unconventional Wisdom: Quitting is good for you

One of our goals at Found|READ is to create an environment where founders feel free to talk about topics or issues they don’t even want to think about, much less discuss in an open forum. Such topics might include: their strategic missteps; failure; or most loathsome, giving up. By sharing these difficult experiences we’ll all learn a thing or two, be less likely to repeat them, and be better founders for it.

One ugly topic I’m interested in is quitting. We all take it for granted that most startups fail. That even the most successful entrepreneurs have to try more than once, with more than one business idea, to find their ultimate success. We usually forget to talk about the less attractive, but necessary, stages that come in between the first (‘starting-up’), and the last (‘success’)—which is to say we avoid talking about the failures that come in the middle.

We go to lengths to celebrate “serial entrepreneurs” who never to give up, succeed more than once, or refuse to retire. What gets lost is that successful entrepreneurs, especially the repeat winners, are not only people who “keeping trying.” These are the founders who know when it’s time to abandon one idea that isn’t quite working, to move on to the next idea, which might. Stamina is an admirable quality in a founder, for sure. Knowing when to “say when” is a quality of judgement that entrepreneurs need to possess, too.

So I was excited to discover yesterday a new book by marketing guru “Seth Godin”:http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/bio.asp, about just this topic called, “The Dip: A little book that teaches you when to quit (and when to stick)”:http://www.amazon.com/Dip-Little-Book-Teaches-Stick/dp/1591841666/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-2118619-3581261?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187199452&sr=1-1. Seth is a pundit, blogger and author of many best-selling tomes, including the one the really put him on the national map, “Purple Cow”:http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/books.asp, about how to make your company remarkable.

“In Seth’s own post on Squiddo”:http://www.squidoo.com/theDipBook/, he writes:

“The old saying is wrong—winners do quit, and quitters do win. Every new project (or job, or hobby, or company) starts out exciting and fun. Then it gets harder and less fun, until it hits a low point…then you find yourself asking if the goal is even worth the hassle. Maybe you’re in a Dip-a temporary setback…What really sets superstars apart from everyone else is the ability to escape dead ends quickly, while staying focused and motivated when it really counts….Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt—until they commit to beating the right Dip for the right reasons. In fact, winners seek out the Dip. They realize that the bigger the barrier, the bigger the reward for getting past it...Losers, on the other hand, fall into two basic traps. Either they fail to stick out the Dip-they get to the moment of truth and then give up-or they never even find the right Dip to conquer.”

I think we could all benefit from getting more comfortable with the notion of quitting, if for nothing else than to take the fear and shame out of it. Success, after all, lies on the other side. I encourage you to add The Dip to your business library—we’re adding to the Found|READ books list.

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Talk About This Story

Hasan Luongo
(24 points)
August 16, 09:08 am

I think your quite right, founders often quote the dismal startup failure rates when giving advice, recruiting early employees, and talking about past ventures , but its not part of the planning vernacular, there is very little talk of “go-or-no-go” until its quite obvious that you’ve reached “no-go”.

Forming a Hypothesis then validating it occurs naturally with any startup and should be embraced as a process/methodology early in the game.

Tony Wright
(11 points)
August 16, 11:08 am

Knowing when to quit and when to stick is a LOT easier in hindsight. :-)

On one hand, I know a lot of entrepreneurs who I look at and say, “Man—that business/idea is a dead end. He should run screaming!”

I probably know MORE entrepreneurs who fail on the other side of the coin—quitting too often. We’ve all seen it—entrepreneurial ADD. They latch onto an idea, work like crazy on it to the point where it’s no longer any fun. Instead of a barrel of promise and potential, it’s a warty alpha product that needs a LOT of work. About that time, a new idea pops into their head that is decidedly wart free! And it’d be easy! And oh-so-viral!

I think we’re pretty well trained by the media to think that a “dip” is a sign of failure (Did YouTube have one? Facebook?). But I think 99% of startups have ‘em.

Adam Benayoun
(114 points)
August 16, 11:08 am

Problem is that lot of people arent focused on their idea.

They are working on an idea which could be very successful if they only devote their time. But before even reaching some kind of milestones, they’re thinking about the next idea and moving to it while leaving the first product to die an horrible and long death.

It’s true that the ability of an entrepreneur to move very fast and change his repertoire is very important for his success. If you work on 10-20 ideas in your life span, you will probably end up being successful on one or two of them; but you’re probably end up missing 5 or 6 that could have been even bigger than your idea which succeeded.

I would say that this thin line between staying focused and moving to the next big thing is too thin to notice when you’re ready to step over it.

I’ve recently decided to take a break from school after 3 years of hard working study. I have only 1 year left, but I believe that it would be foolish to finish this year while I have a bigger opportunity to seize. Am I a fool? Maybe, but that’s what I love about being an entrepreneur.

anuj khurana
(17 points)
August 17, 03:08 am

At Thumbspeed (www.thumbspeed.com) in its early days we built fun applications for mobile like crossword, sudoku, movie listings etc.

Soon we realized that market for that was at best limited and focussed on our core offering of Mobile IM. We quit the mobile gaming business and it reaped rich dividends.

Upendra Poranki Raju
(0 points)
August 21, 10:08 pm

Hey McKinsey Quarterly just came out with a report “Learning to let go: Making better exit decisions ”. Its Premium Content but is being given away for free for some time. Have a look:

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_abstract.aspx?ar…

Dipika Kohli
(0 points)
August 28, 10:08 pm

Plus: opportunity costs.

“Staying the course” means giving up potentially way better things you could be doing. Better use of euros. Better use of minutes. Better use of brainwaves.

Here’s how W.C. Fields puts it: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.”

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