Being Average Is for Losers
In my speech about The Joy of Not Working that I made to 2,000 members of the National Turkish Society for Quality in Istanbul on November 26th, one of the success principles that I covered was "Practice the Art of Nonfinishing."
The whole point of this topic was that people don't quit their careers, jobs, projects, or even marriages often enough.
So, it was no surprise to read The Dip and find out that author Seth Godin has the same philosophy: Here are some quotes from the book:
- Winners quit all the time. They quit the right stuff at the right time.
- Winners win big time because the marketplace loves a winner.
- Most people quit. They just don't quit successfully.
- You need to quit. Not soon, but right now.
- The biggest obstacle to life, as far as I can tell, is our inability to quit soon enough.
- In a competitive world, adversity is your ally.
- Being average is for losers.
- Being better than 98 percent of the competition used to be fine. In the world of Google, though, it's useless.
- If you are not going to get to #1, you might as well quit right now.
- You're Astonishing - How Dare You Waste It
Incidentally, I highly recommend The Dip:
Here are some resources to help you be a better quitter in life:
This Zelinski guy knows how to write prose that has the potential to become those old proverbs everyone repeats.
”
—Herb Denenberg, Philadelphia Evening Bulletin
About Ernie
Ernie J. Zelinski is an international best-selling author, innovator, life-coach, unconventional career expert, and creativity consultant.
Ernie's many life-changing books have helped hundreds of thousands of individuals from all...
When to quit...
Great article. Seth Godin is always pushing the envelope in terms of marketing. I just recently quit my job to come join the Red Room team, so I relate to your post a lot.
However, how do you know when it's time to quit, as opposed to when it's time to persevere?
Jamie Varon
redroom.com
Interesting...
A good and realistic alternative to the typical philosophy. Definitely something to consider.
Thanks for the links!
Love it
Ernie and others,
I stumbled upon your book, "The Joy of NOT working", this afternoon and can not tell have many elements in that book speak to me. I've spent the better half of the day reading - I can do that because I've already made the plunge into 'quitting', which can really free up my time.
To show you what I mean, I've actually documented what I've done since quitting my job:
http://derek.sixonethreemedia.com
Hope you enjoy it.