554: When to Quit
The How of Business - How to start, run, grow and exit a small business.
Henry Lopez, Levante Business Group
4.7 • 522 Ratings
🗓️ 10 February 2025
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When to quit - How to Know When to Pivot or Persevere.
When to quit a project, a marketing campaign, a product line, a business model or perhaps an entire small business.
Show Notes Page: https://www.thehowofbusiness.com/554-when-to-quit/
When should you quit versus push through?
In this episode of The How of Business, Henry Lopez explores the challenging decision of whether to persevere through difficulties or strategically quit and pivot to something better.
Inspired by The Dip by Seth Godin, Henry breaks down the difference between temporary struggles (the dip) and dead-end situations (cul-de-sacs), helping you make smarter decisions in your business.
"Extraordinary benefit accrues to the tiny minority of people who are able to push just a tiny bit longer than most." – Seth Godin, The Dip
This episode for small business owners addresses:
How to recognize if you're in a dip or a dead end.
The dangers of sunk-cost thinking and why quitting isn't failure.
Why persistence leads to success—but only when applied in the right places.
How quitting can free up resources for more promising opportunities.
"Quit the wrong stuff, stick with the right stuff, have the guts to do one or the other." – Seth Godin, The Dip
If you're struggling with whether to keep going or pivot, this episode will give you the clarity you need.
This episode is hosted by Henry Lopez. The How of Business podcast focuses on helping you start, run and grow your small business. The How of Business is a top-rated podcast for small business owners and entrepreneurs. Find the best podcast, small business coaching, resources and trusted service partners for small business owners and entrepreneurs at our website https://TheHowOfBusiness.com
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the How of Business with your host, Henry Lopez, the podcast that helps you start, |
| 0:05.9 | run, and grow your small business. And now, here is your host. Welcome to the Howa Business podcast. |
| 0:12.9 | This is Henry Lopez. And on this episode, I'm going to explore the complex and also emotional topic |
| 0:18.4 | of when to quit. When do we know to quit versus continuing to fight and |
| 0:23.7 | persevere? When do we quit a project or a marketing campaign or a product line or an entire |
| 0:29.6 | business model or perhaps an entire small business? When do we quit versus when do we keep fighting |
| 0:36.2 | to get through to success? You can find all of the |
| 0:39.3 | how-of-business resources, including the show notes page for this episode, and learn more about |
| 0:43.7 | my one-on-one and group coaching programs at the howab business.com. I also invite you to please |
| 0:49.5 | consider supporting this podcast on Patreon. And please subscribe wherever you might be listening so you don't |
| 0:55.0 | miss any new episodes. And thanks to a few of my recent coaching clients, including James, Patrick, |
| 1:00.9 | and Jason and Kara. I look forward to serving as your business coach and helping you achieve |
| 1:05.7 | your business goals. So this episode was primarily inspired by a book that I read recently titled The Dip by Seth Godin. I'm a big Seth Godin fan, as I'm sure many of you are, and I've read several of his books. But I didn't know about this book. It came out seven or eight years ago, I think. And it was actually recommended to me by one of my clients and friend, Ava. Ava's the owner of Maui's finest gifts. So thanks, |
| 1:29.4 | Ava, for turning me on to this book. It's a very short read, so I got through it pretty quickly. |
| 1:34.5 | And it's very insightful because it touches on this very complex and emotional topic of knowing when to quit. |
| 1:41.4 | So it's inspired by that and also other content and other episodes that |
| 1:45.2 | have created about when do we know that our business model is right or broken. And so I think |
| 1:51.0 | those are interrelated. The Dip is a book, as I said by Seth Goat. And then it explores the |
| 1:55.7 | concept of what he calls strategic quitting and persevering. And it emphasizes that success in anything, a project or a business |
| 2:04.0 | often involves pushing through challenging periods. That's the dip, but also knowing when to quit |
| 2:10.5 | if the effort isn't worth the reward. But that's the tricky part. If it only were that easy, |
| 2:15.6 | how do we know if we are in what he calls a |
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