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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
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Quit summary
Annie Duke
The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away
16 mins
Brief summary
"Quit" by Annie Duke is a self-help book that challenges readers to embrace uncertainty and make better decisions by rethinking their relationship with risk. Through personal anecdotes and expert insights, Duke offers practical tools for changing our mindset and overcoming the fear of failure.
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Quit
Summary of 6 key ideas
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Key idea 1 of 6
Quitting can be a virtue.
There’s something that epitomizes the value of quitting – and it’s called poker. Knowing when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em, as Kenny Rogers famously sang, is the essence of the game.
Do poker pros rely on grit, persevering through tough times, to win hands? Hardly. In fact, pros fold more than half the time – far more often than amateurs. Poker rookies, in contrast, typically play out their hands. They’re driven by the need to see if they can pull out a miraculous straight – and fearful of losing the money they’ve already bet. How are they rewarded? By losing their shirts.
In the narrative we spin about success, we have a bias toward “winners.” We fixate on the inspiration of success stories – like that magical, last-minute straight flush. What we don’t highlight are the people who stopped short of their goal – the thing we might call “failure” – and benefited from it.
But quitting is a wise reaction to changing circumstances, and this makes it a vital skill.
Take mountain climbing, for example. Each year, many people try to make the ultimate climb to the summit of Mount Everest. A number of them make it. And quite a few die, falling victim to the mountain’s famously hostile environment. People in both categories persevered; some reached their dream, and others succumbed to their fate.
Other climbers, though, make it almost all the way to the top of the world’s tallest mountain – only to turn around and give up because conditions become unsafe or they run out of time. These people make a choice that often saves their lives.
If there’s one thing to learn from these sensible climbers and poker pros, it’s this: quitting can be a virtue. And it’s definitely not something to be ashamed of. In the next sections, we’ll look deeper into the benefits of quitting – and when and how to bow out.
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What is Quit about?
Quit (2022) makes the case for an undervalued and important skill that can lead to success: knowing when to bow out. It lends nuance to the old-school advice that grit and perseverance are necessary to achieve goals – and offers a manual on how to quit, even when it’s difficult.
Who should read Quit?
- People facing a big decision or planning ahead for a major life change
- Highly motivated people who find the prospect of quitting appalling
- Those stuck in a career or project that feels like a dead end
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