If You Don’t Like the Menu, Leave the Restaurant

“Don’t settle: Don’t finish bad books. If you don’t like the menu, leave the restaurant. If you’re not on the right path, get off it.” –Chris Brogan

I used to feel obligated to finish bad books or stay in restaurants I didn’t like. Then I adopted Chris’s rule, which I’ve used for years but recently noticed that he phrased more elegantly than me.

If you don’t like a book (including mine or any other), give it 50 pages max. After 50 pages, you know where things are going. Happy? Keep reading. Not into it? Move on.

Could it get better as you go along? Could you be pleasantly surprised at the end? Sure, of course.

But that’s not the point. The point is: don’t worry about the opportunity cost. While you’re slogging through the book you don’t like, or trying to find something that you might be able to eat if you tried really hard, there are plenty of other opportunities elsewhere.

Enacting this practice can be huge! I continue to apply it everywhere I go.

Don’t like the phone call you’re on? Hang up the phone.

Don’t like the schedule you made this week? Change it.

Don’t want to deal with bullshit? Stop dealing with bullshit.

If you want to get on the right path, you first have to get off the wrong one. Don’t be afraid to put that book down, walk out of that restaurant, and find something you like.

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