The best news I have heard all term comes from a little book with a big message: the dip by Seth Godin.
“Here is the good news: The fact that it’s difficult and unpredictable works to your advantage. Because if it were any other way, there’d be no profit in it. The reason people bother to go windsurfing is that the challenge makes it interesting. The driving force that gets people to pay a specialist is that their disease is unpredictable or hard to diagnose. The reason we’re here is to solve hard problems.
The next time you’re tempted to vilify a particularly obnoxious customer or agency or search engine, realize that this failed interaction is the best thing that’s happened to you all day long. Without it, you’d be easily replaceable. The Dip is your very best friend.”
In the world of public relations we are always faced with problems that need to be solved. Without issues, our job wouldn’t even be that necessary. This book is perfect for public relations professionals because it encourages people to stick to the things they are great at and ditch the things they are good at. Excellence is key in success. The best people in the world are the best for a reason, they focused on their particular field of expertise and had to take some things for granted in order to get there. You have to get rid of the things that come up sub-par in your life. If you don’t, you risk not having the time and/or energy to perfect the things you will be great at.
This book taught me one of the most important lessons I have ever learned in this lifetime; that quitting is not the same thing as failing. I bought this book the first time I took (and failed) “Infohell” a 100-page research paper course as a perquisite for the journalism school. But the grade really didn’t represent my efforts. In fact, it was my choice, and my choice only, to not finish the paper that I had given countless hours to during fall term 2009 and to re-take the class in the winter and give it my absolute best. I’m one of those people who has a problem with turning in something that is sub-par, something that isn’t perfection in my eyes. So quitting that particular term, meant exceeding expectations in another. I turned that F into an A in four short months. And I wouldn’t have been able to do it without this book.
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