Several years ago, I knew someone who tried just about every recreational and sporting activity out there. He wouldn't just try out a sport, he went "all in" and purchased all the equipment. He had it all - we used to call him "The Gear Guy" because after trying something out, he was immediately hooked. He would go to the local sporting goods store and purchase all the equipment needed for the activity. When he first tried scuba diving, he bought all of the scuba diving equipment - usually the best available. He tried rock climbing once, and then he bought all of the rock climbing equipment - shoes, harness, ropes, etc. You name it - he had it. Here's the thing though, he never seemed to stick with any activity long enough to get really good at it. Just as quickly as he started one activity, he would move on to another one. And all that gear would gather dust in the corner of his garage.
The former business executive and blogger Seth Godin wrote a book called The Dip where he talks about quitting. Godin believes that, contrary to popular belief, the winners (at sports, business, or life in general) are usually the best quitters. Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without any guilt whatsover. That doesn't seem right, though. Or does it?
We are taught that the most successful individuals are the ones who are persistent and never quit. The NFL Hall of Fame coach Vince Lombardi famously said, "Quitters never win and winners never quit." Boxing great Muhammad Ali said, "I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.'" Conrad Hilton said, "Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit." Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said, "If you live long enough, you'll make mistakes. But if you learn from them, you'll be a better person. It's how you handle adversity, not how it affects you. The main thing is never quit, never quit, never quit."
It's become a common refrain. The actor and comedian Brad Garrett starred in the 2005 movie The Pacifier with Vin Diesel. There's a memorable scene where one of the characters quits the high school wrestling team. Garrett (who is plays the wrestling coach) tells the quitter, "You know why you quit? Because you are a quitter. And everybody knows that quitters quit." So if all of these famous and successful people are telling us that we should never, ever quit, why does Seth Godin (who arguably is just as successful as the others) tell us that quitting is not only acceptable, it's one of the most important drivers of success?
Godin talks about a concept that he calls "strategic quitting" and notes that the most successful (athletes, business executives, entertainers, physicians, writers, researchers, etc) are notorious for focusing on the things that will help them achieve their goals to be the best. He uses an analogy here, stating "A woodpecker can tap twenty times on a thousand trees and get nowhere, but stay busy. Or he can tap twenty-thousand times on one tree and get dinner." That reminds me a lot of Bruce Lee's quote, "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once. But I do fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." Practice makes perfect, and the more time that we spend practicing our craft, the better we will be at it.
When you think about it this way, Godin makes a great point. Imagine what would have happened with my friend if he had selected and practiced just one activity. He would have saved a lot of money on sports equipment for sure, but he would also have been a lot better at that one activity instead of just knowledgeable about all the others.
So, just like Coach Mooney (Brad Garrett) said, quitters do quit. But so do winners.
No comments:
Post a Comment