notes #4: the most important decisions of your life relate to quitting

Hey friends,

Lately I’ve been reviewing some of the biggest decisions I’ve made in my life. And guess what, it all relates to quitting.

It made me wonder: how do we decide when and what to quit? So I reviewed every single quitting decision I’ve ever made.

The Navy

A few years ago, I joined the Navy because I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do. And just one month before graduating, I decided to quit.

I realised during the several months of training that it wasn’t for me. Not only was I not enjoying the process, I was terrible at it and constantly stressed out.

It was a rather tough decision to leave because of peer pressure and the sunk cost — I have already gone through the most difficult part of the training.

And to be honest, I learnt a lot about myself and grew from it.

Looking back, it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I ended up learning about building software and running businesses, which I fell in love with. Had I not quit, I might not have stumbled onto this, and would have wasted a considerable amount of time.

The Investment Club

During the time I was obsessed with learning about the financial markets and how to invest, I also joined an investment club as my university.

For context, this is a valuable opportunity not only because I can improve my knowledge in investing, but also opens up networks and offers from associated companies.

Halfway through, I wanted to quit to spend more time on creating content. In my mind then, I preferred to zone out everything else to just focus on one thing — becoming a YouTuber.

Looking back, it can be seen both as a good and bad decision. The intention was right — however, it may not have been optimal. Why? Being part of the club has significant potential down the road. And at that time, I wasn’t sufficiently determined to make content the top priority. If I could do it again, I would have stayed in the club until I see some progress on the content side.

The YouTuber

When I first started creating content, it was a crazy steep learning curve. I had no experience in the area at all — and because I didn’t want to show my face yet, I thought the only option was animation (which makes the learning curve steeper).

Anyway, one video took me nearly a month to make — one week of scripting, and three weeks of editing. And I thoroughly hated the editing part. I was bad at it and found it boring.

All these made me think that maybe creating content wasn’t suitable for me… so I quit.

On hindsight, and after many more years of going back and forth about creating content, I realised two things:

• I still enjoyed creating content and sharing ideas with others

• But I hated excessive video editing

More importantly, I just didn’t embrace how difficult it was — I was learning a skill and it takes time. People say on average it takes at least two years before you start seeing results, and my overambitious self thought I could do it faster (and also I was impatient — which is crazy since we are willing to spend four years learning a skill at university, twice the time).

So yeah, it was a bad decision to quit — and I should have instead re-focus my time on what I enjoy (i.e. the scripting part) and persevered through the initial dip.

What I realised…

Is that quitting is neither good or bad on its own — what matters is the reason you quit. Are you quitting because it’s right or because it’s hard?

When you quit because it’s hard, it may not often be a good choice as you could be distracted by the pain of it instead of what is actually best for you.

Seth Godin explains this more succinctly in his book The Dip by comparing three different situations:

1. The Dip:

   This is the temporary, challenging phase you encounter after the initial excitement of starting something new wears off. Progress slows, obstacles seem bigger, and the effort required increases significantly. However, the Dip is where growth happens—it's the critical point that separates those who are merely interested from those who are committed. Pushing through the Dip often leads to mastery, expertise, and success because many give up here, reducing competition.

2. The Dead-End:

   A Dead-End is a situation where no matter how much effort you put in, there’s little to no potential for significant growth or improvement. Think of jobs with no advancement opportunities or projects that lack scalability. Here, perseverance doesn’t lead to meaningful progress—it just leads to stagnation. Unlike the Dip, where persistence pays off, in a Dead-End, quitting is often the smarter choice because your time and energy could be better invested elsewhere.

3. The Cliff:

   The Cliff is a situation that feels great initially—progress seems easy, and the rewards are immediate. However, it’s unsustainable, and eventually, there’s a sudden, dramatic drop-off. This could be likened to habits or careers that are lucrative short-term but harmful in the long run, like addictive behaviors or high-risk ventures with inevitable collapse. The Cliff is dangerous because the fall is sudden and severe. Recognizing it early allows you to quit before facing catastrophic consequences.

The goal is to:

• Push through the Dip when the reward is worth it.

• Quit the Dead-End because it leads nowhere.

• Avoid the Cliff before it leads to disaster.

What this means…

Quit strategically. But more importantly, to be very selective with your time.

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try something new, or continue exploring.

When deciding to start something new (or continue doing something), consider the three ‘P’s:

• Potential: does doing this create exponential results in the long-term and open up other opportunities?

• Passion: do you find joy doing it?

• Practicality: do you have to do this out of financial concerns and other responsibilities?

But maybe every now and then, when you feel like you aren’t making any progress, or when you feel like quitting, do a review.

Quitting strategically is most effective when you write down what will make you quit at the start. So you don’t quit when the going gets tough, and so you do when it’s not working out.

But the real value of learning when to quit is also the opposite effect: knowing when not to quit.

Because only by persevering at the right thing no matter how hard the going gets is where you create extraordinary results.

Cheers,
Joesurf

💡 Inspiration of the Week

Quitting as a short-term strategy is a bad idea. Quitting for the long term is an excellent idea.
— Seth Godin

🧠 Weekly Notes

📖 Book — The Dip: Seth Godin discusses the importance of strategic quitting and how to become the best in your field

• Persevere through the dip when there is a lot of potential

• Quit when it’s a dead-end or when the risk is too high and could do irreversible damage