“Rings and jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only gift is a portion of thyself.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
I had gotten about halfway through an 800-page book, but I was slogging through, not really invested in any of the characters nor engaged by the plot.
About three-quarters of the way through a K drama, I looked at my husband, and asked, “Why are we still watching this? It jumped the shark a few episodes ago.” He was watching it because he thought I wanted to. So, we made the call—we’re done.
It’s easy to keep going once we start. We’ve built neural pathways, we are moving along the S Curve, and maybe we’ve even arrived at a place of comfort and ease. Then there’s the sunk cost fallacy, the open loop. I don’t want to stop now that I’ve started and invested time, money, and energy.
And yet, if I keep reading another 400 pages or watch three or four more episodes, that’s another several hours of my life that I could have spent doing something on an S Curve that matters to me.
I don’t like an open loop. I don’t think many of us do.
But I do love this quote from Seth Godin, “Winners quit all the time. They just quit the right stuff at the right time.” So, I am practicing quitting, trying to improve my ability to know when to quit (maybe you will want to re-listen to the podcast with Annie Duke about quitting).
When we quit something, we say no to continuing on the familiar path, and we need to say no so we can say yes to new paths.
Yes, to who and what we care about right now.
This is also on my mind because my wonderful editor of more than eight years, Heather Hunt, told me last week that it is time for her to be done.
She is at the top of the S Curve. I am sad. But I’m happy that I’m sad. You want to be sad when something ends because that means it was wonderful and worthwhile.
I am going to miss working so closely with her, but I appreciate that, as always, she is willing to call it as she sees it, even in this difficult change. It’s time to be done and say yes to something new.
Another favorite quote of mine is the Ralph Waldo Emerson one that opens this newsletter. It reminds us that true gifts are not “stuff”; they are “self.” They are our time, energy, and talents. And those attributes of ourselves are finite. We can’t give to everyone or everything all the time.
So, we can’t stick forever with everything we start. We have to learn to recognize when to be done and when to begin something new.
Our podcast guest this week is Scott Edinger. He has done some fascinating work around sales. He explains that people buy from us because they trust us. There is a promise implicit in what we are selling, and they trust that we will deliver on it. Does our product and service deliver on that promise?
Scott also shares that the people who are selling on our behalf are driving our organization’s strategy. In one form or another, each one of us is selling / or being sold to every day as we negotiate our way through life. It’s something to consider: what are we selling to others, and can they trust us to deliver on that? What are we buying from others, and why do we trust them to deliver?
As always, thank you for being here!
My best,
Whitney
P.S. If you are looking for an opportunity to light up the world with holiday cheer, I love these giving machines.
P.P.S. Great news—we’re hiring! If you are a team player, enjoy fast-paced work environments, and like to tackle various tasks, we’d love to work with you. Not only are we passionate about company growth, but we also feel the same way about our employees. Learn more about our current job openings for the Marketing Manager and Operations and Sales Administrative Assistant roles!
