I like Seth Godin. He writes often and well about marketing and related matters and he is refreshingly honest about it. No more am I reading formulaic rubbish about what to do to get more readers or fax back; no more am I reading the secrets to marketing success.

I also like that he believes honesty and integrity are the keys to marketing sucess and that the Internet is what has changed this paradigm (yes, it’s definitely a change).

I’ll write more about him because he inspires me but let a me tell you quickly about the The Dip. It’s a little book – read it in an hour or two. He talks about how the popular wisdom that winners never quit is rubbish – that winners just didn’t quit the thing they won at. They probably had to quit lots of other things in order to have the time and energy to push through the dip and succeed at what they eventually succeeded at.

So, his first lesson is not never to quit but to quit many things and try to spot the one thing you should not quit. More tricky than you might imagine, I expect.

The Dip is what makes succeeding worthwhile – it’s hard to succeed and that is why lots of people don’t – and why there are rewards for succeeding. You need to push on when the going gets tough if you are to succeed and get the prize (whatever it is).

We feel like we’re in the dip – it’s certainly hard work and we feel like we’re turning the corner. Are you in the dip or are you toughing on with no corner in sight? Maybe you should have a look and think about quitting your unsuccessful strategies. Dump them and focus on the ones that you can win is the key message.