The scene… headhunter staff meeting….
“What are we looking for?” Â
  … “we need some quitters!”Â
“Yes… yes, but how do we get them???”
Seth Godin, my favorite author by far, just published a list of quitters (people who have quit one path and shifted to another, and found even more success) that includes people you’ll recognize, such as Jeff Foxworthy, Tom Peters, Bill Gates, me.  WTF? Well, I left the Silicon Valley scene for Kentucky and it was just wierd enough I guess.  But the escape from the cubicle-rut let me do what I love in such a beautiful place… and to get really good at it.”
“I was working cubicles in the Silicon Valley, working on software that would never see the light of day, for people who didn’t care one way or another. I worked with great people, but we all sort of did the work for academic reasons… preparing ourselves for something later.  The pattern was always the same. New manager. Corporate Offsite. New vision statement on coffee mug. Lots of coding.  Late nighters. Project changes. Ship, dilution, or cancellation. Bug fixing. Is anyone using product? Does anyone like it? Repeat.”
….I quit that, and now do this.
But Seth is asking people to look inside for a path that suits them. I’ve heard many times that you should “do what you love and the money will follow.” I think Seth is saying that you should “cut your losses” quickly and find the groove you belong in. It’s not a defeat to quit. It’s not the end of the world, and you are not going to shrivel and die. It’s like testing on the web a bit. You are probably NOT going to get it right the first time. You will have to observe what is happening around you, you’ll need to make a call. But make it. Get out from under the losing situations and try until you get it right.Â
I find the story is told in Pink Floyd’s “Time”:
Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but its sinking
And racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in the relative way, but youre older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the english way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought Id something more to say…..(Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd)
