Embrace The Dip
Savvy Saturdays (3/6/21)
Have you ever felt uncertain whether to start a venture?
Have you ever worked on a venture and wanted to quit?
Have you ever felt that quitting while you’re in too deep with a venture would be a “waste of resources”? (a.k.a. sunk-cost fallacy)
Seth Godin’s book, “The Dip”, really provides insight on how to traverse these questions.
The dip is the time that lies between when you decide to start something, to the point you reach success.
Some dips are quick and easy.
Others are long and tedious.
These are things like:
4-year college
A Masters program
Becoming a chess master
Applying and going to Med school
Building a startup
The larger the gap is, the fewer people will try to jump over the gap.
Quitting creates scarcity. And scarcity creates value.
You can see in the graph above, the results seem to rise up at the beginning, but eventually, peak and spiral downward into a valley over time.
As your “level of experience” goes up, the results seem to stagnant.
After some period of time, though, if you push through the dip, your efforts start to veer back upwards towards success, gaining traction.
This is what people experience when they start to learn snowboarding.
Seth Godin shares in the book that most people who go to a snowy mountain want to learn snowboarding.
Unfortunately though, they don’t realize how difficult learning how to snowboard is.
They seem to gain traction in the beginning, but as time goes on, the level of commitment and work and the results that arrive do not make valid sense.
With that, a majority of people quit after realizing they can’t get to that level of expertise, wasting time.
The people who spend a bit of time going through the dip can become average snowboarders, but the ones who are willing to hold out to the end of the dip end up in the top 0.1% of snowboarders.
If people who wanted to snowboard knew about the dip before they started, they could assess how far they wanted to go, face reality, and either commit to the dip or quit ahead of time.
Ultimately, the idea of the dip is that if you can't make it through the dip, don't start and save your time to work on something else.
But if you can and are willing to start & stick out the dip, you will reap the rewards on the other side by crossing the gap that others won't jump.
The Dip gives you:
permission to quit when you find yourself facing the sunk-cost fallacy of a decision
wisdom to quit before you start a project you don't plan to complete
motivation to push through to the end of the dip when you commit to a project
Questions to ponder: 🤔
What venture are you pursuing that you’re not willing to hold out to the end?
What venture are you considering that you’re willing to continue no matter the cost?
Weekly Housekeeping
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Weekly Collections
A collection of resources for you to enjoy… 📰 🎬 🎙️
Mind Your Bite by Naomi
If you want best links around the Internet to help you remove the nonessentials and be more creative, check out Naomi’s newsletter, Mind Your Bite!
One of her recent newsletters explored an idea I’m still pondering—the idea that "Everything is a remix remastered".🤔 You can read more here.
She dives into productivity, shares about balancing life & work, and explores creativity, all in a condensed newsletter!
(a sneak peek of what she provides)
Pixar released a video to support Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders
The video was released in support against crime against Asian Americans.
The short tells the story of a father who discovers that his young son is different than other kids because he floats. Rather than subject him to judgment from the outside world due to his difference, the father keeps his son out of sight.
“Float” was inspired by Rubio's own son, who was diagnosed with autism.
Punchline & Transitions list for Writing
Weekly Tidbits
Learnings, verses, & quotes to chew on… 🧐
Verse of the Week
“Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!”
—Psalm 139:23-24 ESV
Challenging Quote
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
—Anais Nin
Weekly Highlights
Quick personal update… 🏃⏳⏰
This past week, I connected with 10+ people, and I’m starting to burn out 😅 I may be pouring out more energy into entrepreneurship than into my work, so hopefully, I can find balance again in the coming week.
My newsletter testimony got featured on a cross-promotion platform that I use!
Created a sponsorships page for people who want to sponsor on the newsletter (hope to create ad examples over the weekend)!
Finished two books this past week, “Greenlights” by Matthew McConaughey and “Winning the War In Your Mind” by Craig Groeschel.
“Greenlights” has a lot of great insights on signals and going for different opportunities (review).
“Winning the War In Your Mind” was a great book for getting biblical truth and scientifically proven tools to fight against lies and rebuild the mind to honor and live for Christ. (review)
Started a new book, “Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus” by Nabeel Qureshi, as well as “Show Your Work” by Austin Kleon. Excited for what they both have in store!
Weekly Update
Long-form Personal life… 🔔
Hello friends,
And to all the new people, welcome! Greetings from Austin! 👋
Let’s jump right in!
This update is going to be shorter, as I’ve been a bit more focused on growth and meeting people. Captured most of it in the highlights above!
The past couple of weeks, I’ve been setting goals:
Unfortunately, I didn’t hit most of them, but you live and learn!
Hopefully, I’ll create more realistic goals for next week and share them on my Twitter!
Anyways, here are several pictures from this past week: 📷
Thanks for reading to the end! I appreciate you taking all that time to read this.
If you have any feedback, thoughts, or want to chat, feel free to reply to me below.
With that, stay safe 😷, keep it savvy 😎, and I’ll see y’all in the next update 😊
Eric
