I “met” Seth Godin a couple of years ago when he was in town to speak in front of about 600 people. I was part of the team who brought him here and was able to lug his bags from the entrance of the facility to the presentation, and then from there to the car so he could jet out.
He was in town doing a book tour for his new book, The Dip. The gist of The Dip is knowing when to quit… it really talks to entrepreneurs, helping them know it’s okay to stop working on their new gig they dreamed up in their basement or garage. It’s really tough as entrepreneurs usually fall in love with their business (baby), and can’t even imagine NOT keeping on keeping on – even if they are going nowhere.
Do me a favor and go order The Dip – it’s a quick read and it’s only about $13 with S&H.
Let me tie that to the job search. There are two friends of mine who are ready to quit. Quitting is not bad, as Seth Godin says… quitting is, many times, the right thing to do. It’s sometimes the best answer.
One of my buddies is in a job search. He’s older (I’ve written about age discrimination here), and finding the job search quite difficult. Highly skilled, strong background, and the right person for the job, he’s losing out to recent graduates who will work for a fraction of the cost of hiring him.
He needs to quit.
We talked about that recently and he’s ready to quit. The job search. It’s not a big deal, really. I quit my job search, because it wasn’t going well. I started my own company.
My buddy is talking about starting his own company – not so he can appear “employed” as a job seeker, but so he can put food on his table and meet his financial goals.
Another friend is going the other way – he owns his business which he has run successfully for years. But he’s ready to quit.
He also needs to quit.
And he is going to. He’s actively looking for a job.
Is it hard to quit? Yes.
Is it necessary sometimes? Absolutely.
If you think you might need to quit your job search, or whatever career path you are on, you might be right. Go read The Dip.
Just to clarify, and tie this back to the blog post title – I’m not suggesting you QUIT your job search if it’s hard. But “hard” might be a symptom of another, deeper problem.
