I picked up “The Dip” by Seth Godin a few months ago and had a chance to sit down and read it a few weekends ago. What an excellent book! It’s short and to the point with some wonderful insight into how we approach choices in life. He equates it to “knowing when to stick, and knowing when to quit”. He further dives into being the “Best in the World” at what you choose to pursue, and ties the idea previously mentioned to what sets us apart from excellence and mediocrity.

I agree with much of what he says and would add my own point that the most valuable asset in our lives is time. The odd thing about time is that nobody knows how much they are given, but what they are given, we should manage wisely. Thus, choosing “when to stick and when to quit” is certainly a thought to consider in all of our life’s endeavors.

I just finished up reading The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and William Danko. It’s great read if you are interested in this kind of study and information. Some of the information in the middle of the book is a bit boring, but I like most of the content from the beginning and ending chapters.

One of my favorite sections of the book is when they are describing entrepreneurs and courage. They defined courage as

“behaving in a way that conjures up fear”.

They go on to finish by stating that

“courageous people, entrepreneurs, recognize the fear in what they are doing. But they deal with it. They overcome their fears. That’s why they are successful”.

Great stuff there, and the last case study involving Mr. W is quite humorous too.