Seth Godin, The Dip, Shai Agassi and The Bursty Economy

Great post by Anshu Sharma: Did Shai Agassi read The Dip by Seth Godin? Anshu refers to this Guy Kawsaki Q&A about Seth’s new book The Dip. Anshu quotes from the interview:

“According to bestselling author Seth Godin, what really sets superstars apart from everyone else is the ability to escape dead ends quickly, while staying focused and motivated when it really counts.

Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt-until they commit to beating the right Dip for the right reasons. In fact, winners seek out the Dip. They realize that the bigger the barrier, the bigger the reward for getting past it. If you can become number one in your niche, you’ll get more than your fair share of profits, glory, and long-term security.”

Anshu asks: “A vote for green technology or a vote against SAP?”

In case you missed it Shai has left SAP to work on The Future Of Movement, that is, Alternative Transportation, or The Long Tailpipe. Some of the first posts on his new blog set out to explain how and why he left SAP in good shape. It seems Shai is not voting against SAP. But for greening. Which brings me to a mashup of Seth’s Dip theory with Anne Zelenka’s busy versus bursty model. Bursty people are more likely to be Dippers. Shai is a Big Dipper but there are tons of small dippers out there. At SAP Shai was part of the busyness economy, defined so:

The busyness economy works on face time, incremental improvement, strategic long-term planning, return on investment, and hierarchical control.

Shai has instead chosen to join the bursty economy:

“The burst economy, enabled by the Web, works on innovation, flat knowledge networks, and discontinuous productivity.”

Shai may have just tired of the shackles of SAP’s success. The future of the planet is surely a more important Dip than the success of SAP. Like many in the emerging green economics Shai is setting out to save the world or get rich(er) trying.

disclosures: SAP will hopefully become a client very soon. I haven’t read Seth’s book yet but if the mashup makes sense it may even end up on Anne’s bibliography.