Seth Godin is a famous writer behind many (damn near works of art) books on marketing, and one of his latest books, which you can read in an hour, is The Dip. Phenomenal book, get it. One of Seth’s things is to lay out the idea for you on the very first page of the book and then proceed to write for 50–100 pages explaining it and justifying the message he is just offering. The nutshell of The Dip is that successful people tend to know when to quit.

Successful IT people don’t know when to quit – as a matter of fact, the more attention and focus you can bring to a problem and solve it, the better you are as an IT person. But what happens if you start a company, and what happens when you apply the same type of intensity and followup to a dispute or a conversation that you shouldn’t in the first place? You end up with a long argument, going nowhere. This is not my idea, but I am offering it up for your consideration, if the person that clued me in on it would like to take credit for it, by all means, comments are open

“The Power of my Delete Key”

I follow this process in determining whether the conversation takes place or not:

1. Does this feedback make me money? If yes, read on. No – Delete.

2. Does this message get me laid? If yes, read on and respond. No – Delete.

3. Does this message get me free beer? If friends then yes, read on and respond. No – Delete.

Simple three step guide to a stress free life. Remember, not all conversations are worth having, not all people are worth talking to.

I unfortunately struggle from not implementing this as harshly as I ought to. I think you’ve all seen me struggle with this stuff when dealing with the negative public feedback from SM, SBS Show, OWN, etc. Starting today, this policy goes into effect.

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