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How Quitting the Wrong Things and Getting Into the Right Ones Can Change Your Life

It's better to quit than get stuck into the wrong path.

By Jack OtisPublished 7 years ago 3 min read
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Anyone who is afraid of failure in this life will not find success. Success itself is a mix of several falls and wake ups, it is getting to a new summit each time we hit a roadblock. So many times we are misled by the media and society that success is the attainment of a certain level or position in life; there’s no level to attain, no final destination to reach.

Three years ago, a friend of mine, Cindy, wanted to start a business. She is a passionate foodie and wanted to get into the restaurant business. Then she did what everyone would do, she did some research, saved up money and started perfecting some of her childhood recipes. After getting everything ready and ready she quit her full-time insurance job and launched her business. She went all-in into her new venture with the biggest passion I've ever seen.

First few months, business was good, she was building a steady stream of patrons who would recommend her place to their friends. Business continued growing and growing steadily but soon she hit a bump along the way. The industry was changing very fast, consumers tastes were moving onto ‘new’ food trends. Hers was more of a traditional staple dish.

Things started moving the opposite direction for her just 8 months after she launched. Soon she couldn't pay the rent or keep up with the bills and employees' salaries. She had two choices; scale down the business by cutting costs or simply go out of business. She chose the latter, she quit and got back into the corporate world.

Interestingly enough, her new corporate career was in the food processing business. Here, she got to really learn the industry in and out. Two years later, she identified a good opportunity and with the entrepreneurial fever still in her, decided to start a new business this time in food processing. She built her new company slowly from scratch and today Cindy is running a 7-figure business.

You see, she was beaten by the market the first time. Yes, she quit, she gave up because she had gotten into a super competitive industry without knowing much. Sometimes when things aren't moving the way we wished for or hoped for, the best thing to do is to QUIT.

I know, quitting has a negative feeling to it, it’s got the attribute of weakness. But not persisting in a dead-end is not always the way, it’s stupid chasing a dream that may never come true. It's cliché now when we hear someone say they never going to quit, it’s all over the media, everywhere. But trust me, it will help you a lot if you learn to quit the wrong stuff and get yourself into the right ones.

Seth Godin’s book, The Dip illustrates this point better where he says

‘ Quit the wrong stuff, stick with the right stuff. Have the guts to do one or another’.

Cindy quit the restaurant business not because she was a quitter, she just wasn't very ready the first time. She needed to get back herself together, slow down for a bit, learn from all the mistakes she made her first foray into the brutal world of business and like a badly beaten fighter, come back even stronger in the next round.

And that is exactly what she did. So if something isn't working right for you, no matter how hard you try, it might be better to quit for a while, hit the reset button and get back to yourself.

As the old adage goes, ‘ask yourself a better question and you will get a better answer’. When you come back, you will be stronger than ever. I will leave you with another Seth Godin quote;

‘Winners quit all the time, they just quit the right stuff at the right time’.
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About the Creator

Jack Otis

Jack is a freelance writer with over 7 years of experience writing online on platforms like Vocal and Medium.

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