[roughfalls]

"Knowing when to quit is as important as knowing when not to quit. Hard work does not always pay off."

This is the entire subject of Seth Godin's _The Dip_. I'm not a huge fan of this breed of books, but if someone is looking for a lesson on this topic, I would having a look at that book. It's very short -- you can read it in under an hour. It provides a decent mental framework for thinking through the question of whether you should continue on your current path, or quit and switch gears.

[davehtaylor]

Reminds me of a quote I heard a while back, not sure the source, went something to the effect of:

"Winners never quit, and quitters never win. But a person who never wins and never quits is a fool."

[dyarosla]

Is that the correct phrasing? It would imply that a fool that never wins and never quits should quit... but if quitters never win this fool would be sure to not win once they've quit.

[blensor]

Can't resist: "The only winning move is not to play" :)

But I guess it means that a winner knows when there is no path to a win and retreats to do something where it is actually possible to win.

[module0000]

In the finance industry, when there is no play to be made...the play is to buy options that are profitable if things stay the way there are.

Basically, when you know to "do nothing", there is an action to be taken - it just depends on "nothing really happening" to work out.

[s73ver_]

The point is they're not going to win anyway.

[valesco]

Sometimes you don't win.

[wiz21c]

Nice but how do you know in which group you are or when you go from one group to another...

[kamaal]

If no mistake you have made, yet losing you are. Then a different game you must play.

~Yoda.

[syntaxing]

Interesting, I'm going have to look into this book. I think the hardest part for me personally when I'm making my "quitting" decision is that my emotional attachment tends to supersede my logical thinking.

[googletazer]

The Dip was an eyeopener, its a highly recommended read.