A while back, we had an underground plumbing problem. A hole was dug, and for the coldest days of winter, a piece of our home’s water intake was exposed to temperatures many degrees below freezing.

I let water drip in the tub, but it was so cold I wanted to provide some insulation to the exposed section of the pipe–six feet down in a frozen mud hole. I couldn’t think of a good way, but my Dad brilliantly suggested that I tie string to a full bag of trash and lower it onto the exposed pipe. Voila! An efficient, effective, cheap and appropriate solution.

There are many obstacles in business. Many things we can’t do. Seth Godin writes in his excellent blog post of March 2, 2009 that we should look for a way through.

And as he correctly points out, those who see a way through often have a motive for doing so. More customers are served then.

Perhaps we can get through economic hard times with the right attitude and a little ingenuity. Watch people in the fast lane.

Peter Rubel

Of course certain conditions for quitting are to be assumed. There is a time to cut one’s losses, better earlier than later. Strategic quitting takes courage or humility because it requires admitting previous bad judgment or being suckered or that one has wasted time and resources. This all is of course to be distinguished from a lack of perseverance or panic-driven quitting. Winners must persevere through the dip on the one hand and bail out of dead ends or turn tail before going over a cliff on the other. The trick is to identify which paths are which.

Much of the motive behind advocacy of selective (1) strategic quitting and (2) perseverance through the dip is a widely observed phenomenon of winning: the biggest chunk of the rewards by far go only to those in first place. Most first place winners got there not by extraordinary talent or luck (although such exists) but by quitting the “jack of all trades” parts and persevering through the dip on the “master of one thing” part. First place Winners make a real contribution in the single area they master, and it shows in their bottom line.

I can think of past instances in which I paid dearly for not quitting. Such was my classic deer-in-the-headlights paralysis. Godin would then ask the question: How could I have done better? He seems to answer in at least two ways. One, to admit candidly where one is headed, and two, to set conditions for dropping out in advance and then stick to them.

Indeed, it stands to reason that most people are not in first place in their niche. Therefore, most people either ought to quit something — not necessarily their long term goal, but something that hinders or distracts — or press on through the dip, keeping both eyes on the prize. Godin’s The Dip upholds an ideal for those who aim for first place.

It also stands to reason that most of us will not make it to first place. That, for pride or fear or lack of wisdom, most of us will not quit where we should quit and stick where we should stick. Or that we simply will not care. At least not to the enough to make first place. Godin does not dwell on these implications, but they are there. The silver lining for the majority then is that those in first place benefit others broadly because they have made the greater contribution.