Gilad"s shared items

Friday, July 6, 2007

3 ways, only one leads to success


On his book The Dip, Seth Godin presents three ways to view any path you are taking in your life. The Dip, The Cul-de-Sac (dead end), and The Cliff.

You are on the Cul-de-Sac, when you are doing something that gives you some reward but over time the reward does not increase no matter how big the effort you invest in it. For example, watching television or surfing the web on work time (and writing this blog post).
You are on the cliff, when the reward/effort ratio increases in time but you know in the end there is a big cliff. For example, smoking, not exercising, and surfing the web on work time (and writing this blog post).

You are on the Dip when first the reward is big, but after a while it is getting harder and harder , only the ones that get out of the dip get a high reward. For example, writing a blog, on the first few posts it is fun and you have a lot of ideas, but then after a while you hit the dip and you don't have time to post anything, the hits on your blog don't increase enough, and you are out of ideas on what to write.

Most people stay on the cliffs and dead ends of life, and quit on dips. Seth advice to happiness is to do the opposite. Quit the cliffs and dead ends and focus on the Dips.