Hey there, Rob Swanson here, sharing a valuable lesson I’ve learned from Seth Godin, who wrote “The Dip.”
Let’s dive into what the dip actually is, my own personal experience with it, and how to continue on an upward trajectory if/when the dip gets you.
Push through the dip
So what does that really mean?
Well, it means that when you’re starting something new, it might feel a little hard to begin. But then, you begin to enjoy some wins. For REI, maybe you chose a good market or you know exactly what to do for a direct mail campaign or you’ve got a solid buyers list. And let’s say leads start coming in, and you’re feeling good…
Then, you get on the phone with a lead, and suddenly, you don’t know what to say.
So, you were stacking wins, then smack — you hit a point in the process where there’s a skill deficiency… and that derails everything.
That is the beginning of the dip.
Before, your effort felt smooth or even easy… now, it feels harder to keep your successes stacking because of that deficit.
And maybe it’s not even a skill issue… it could be that something in your chosen market changes, which then pushes you into the dip.
It just so happens that I’ve got a great story for that…
Back in 2008, I was flipping a lot of houses. I had private money. I had lines of credit. I had access to capital, and I was using the capital.
Then, the financial markets began collapsing and crashing… AIG, Bear Stearns, and others were filing for bankruptcy. The market was in free fall, everybody was panicking, and interest rates dropped toward zero.
The sky was falling.
But for me, life was pretty good. I didn’t lose a job, because I didn’t have a job. All of a sudden, there’s a lot more distressed real estate to buy than there was just 5 months earlier.
And remember, I had access to capital, because I had a virtual house flipping business prior to that and kept it going
One day, I woke up, logged in to my bank account, and all the money was gone.
Why?
Because my bank, according to its fine print, decided that if it deemed that there was excessive risk in the market, it could take all the money out of any of my bank accounts to pay off the lines of credit whenever it wanted to.
Whoa!
And that’s what it did… it took hundreds of thousands of dollars of my money and paid off all the lines of credit, leaving me: a property-rich investor, a relationship-rich investor, a skills-rich investor… and a cash-poor investor.
I’m sharing this because that was my dip.
It was that moment where I could have gotten angry. I could have felt defeated and blamed others. I could have stuck my head in the sand.
Instead, I got in my truck, drove to Chipotle, and got myself a burrito with the little bit of money I had left.
As I sat there enjoying my meal, I thought, “What am I going to do?”
Well, I knew how to generate cash on demand. So when I experienced my dip, which was outside of my control, I leaned on my skills and knowledge to generate cash.
So know that when a dip shows up, sometimes you can borrow from past experiences and past skills to get through and sometimes it’s a brand-new thing that you’re not sure how to get out of. So, maybe you need to push through by leaning on other’s knowledge or trial by fire, figuring it out as you go, failing forward even.
I was able to get through my dip, but if I would have put my head in the sand, it would have been devastating.
Personal development straight ahead
Pushing through a dip speaks to the idea of having an abundant mindset… as opposed to a defeatist mindset.
I could have sat at Chipotle wallowing in my sorrow that my money’s gone, then spiraled down from there to a very bad place.
But I realized that I had the skill… so I got back up, looked at where the gaps were, and decided it was go time.
I pushed through.
So, when you’ve been enjoying some wins, and the dip hits you — it’s up to you to choose the outcome. Do you give into the dip or push through?
I’d venture to say that if you’re here reading this blog post, you’re the kind of person who will push through. Learn from others. Fail forward. Quitting isn’t an option.
And of course, lean on your skills, my teaching, and the great resources at Awesomely to push through any dip you experience and come out the other side improved and going forward in a positive way.
You got this.