Isn’t it great when, every once in a while, you come across someone who challenges conventional thinking about things that were so obviously clear and settled in your mind up to that point? It is even more exciting when they do that by revealing the absurdity of your previous beliefs through such simple logic that you are embarrassed that you didn’t see it yourself.

That’s the way I felt after reading bestselling author Seth Godin’s short but delightful exposé, The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick).

You might recognize Godin as the author of a number of other books that have found their way into the libraries of many financial services executives and advisors, including Permission Marketing, All Marketers are Liars and Small is the New Big. True to form, in The Dip, Godin confronts us with a rash of common sense that is compelling in its minimalism but annoying in its insensitivity to the effect it might have on our world view.

The basic theme: we all grew up with the notion that quitting was bad. Quitting school, quitting a job, quitting a relationship and quitting a belief all suggest failure. As a consequence, we are loath to quit most endeavours when, in fact, it may be only when we are brave enough to quit that we free ourselves to pursue greater opportunity.

For financial advisors, that might mean leaving the business altogether, even though you are successful by industry standards. (See, I told you it was somewhat blasphemous.) For others, it could mean abandoning a market you thought was absolutely right for you or, perhaps, a fundamental investment philosophy.

Godin doesn’t suggest that we quit without reason or thought — in fact, quite the opposite. Only quitting at the right time, for the right purpose and in the proper way will result in the benefits of moving on and up.

The “dip” in the title, Godin says, is the point at which most people quit. So, it would be that point in an advisor’s career when such things as increased bureaucracy, productivity slumps, unappreciative clients and market downturns gang up on you and cause you to ask whether the struggle to build a successful practice is worth the effort. For many advisors, the weight of being in the dip may seem too great and the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel may be dim, making them consider giving up.

In my experience as an advisor coach, that point frequently comes somewhere around the 18- to 24-month period for a rookie advisor. But it can also present itself much later in the journey between startup and mastery of your business. The recent market meltdown became a huge dip for many advi-sors, and we have seen numerous long-standing practices disappear over the past year or so.

Was it a bad thing that those advisors quit? Probably not, Godin suggests. Far better to quit and move on to something more personally inspiring than to “quit” and stay, if an advisor no longer has the passion and ambition. To do the latter would be settling for mediocrity, which wouldn’t serve the advisor, his or her clients, or the industry well.

The good news is that the dip can also be the secret to your success. If you invest the time, effort and energy to power through the dip, you can position yourself and your business to rise to new heights. That might require a new way of doing business, a different client base, alternative products, new staff — whatever it takes to get your practice back on track and to take business away from those advisors who have hung around too long and settled for mediocrity.

So, it is not enough just to survive the dip. You must embrace it for the opportunity it presents for re-evaluation, introspection, re-engineering and re-energizing yourself and your business. The outcome may take you in an entirely new direction.

Godin also introduces the cul de sac (derived from the French and meaning “dead end”) scenario. That’s where you work and work but nothing changes. It doesn’t get better, but neither does it get worse. This is another point at which it might be best to quit, because the opportunity cost of investing in something that is not going to get better is too high. There are legions of advisors who are wandering along culs de sac within their practices or, indeed, within the industry.

@page_break@The Dip is not written specifically for financial advisors, but it could have been. Recognizing when to change tactics or strategies in your practice or in your life is essential to long-term satisfaction at every level. IE