Got Grit?

How to know when to give up...or not.

Our world is going through a great upheaval.

The aftereffects of the pandemic are everywhere.

Hundreds of thousands have left or lost significant jobs and have made big career pivots.

I know a lot about pivots.

I know the pain, the pleasure, and the deep requirement for persistence when making crucial career changes.

If I've learned one thing after leaving a big career and then going through all the ups and downs of entrepreneurship is it takes one critical thing:

G R I T

I had a really interesting conversation with a networking buddy recently.

He has a very successful business in the telehealth space.

He's grown it to close to $50M in revenue.

But before this, he had years of business flop after business flop.

How did he know not to give up?

I chose the picture at the top of this post because it perfectly encapsulates the 3 ingredients that I believe are musts in keeping your business car running.

Passion and purpose for your own business is the gas the keeps the engine running.

Persistence is your foot on the gas.

GRIT is what makes you continue to drive even when you're tired or uncomfortable or the weather conditions suck.

Yes, you must rest occasionally. You need to watch the GPS to make sure you're on the right road.

But GRIT is the glue that makes you push past your fear of risk in order to reap the ultimate rewards.

There was a great story about Fields Of Diamonds I read when I first started my business.

Basically, miners are looking for diamonds in a field and after many days, they still haven't found any diamonds. They are frustrated and lose hope. They give up, pack up and leave.

But one miner doesn't give up.

One more yard and he finds the diamonds.

How do you know if you will finally reach your diamond-find?

The answer is, just like anything about business, you don't.

In business, there is no sure thing.

We only hear about the success stories.

I remember years ago, I met with an early techpreneur.

I was interested in building my own social network for professionals so I wanted to learn how he had done it.

The plug and play matching software didn't exist back then.

Everything was built custom.

I met with him because he had created a successful matching platform.

He told me about his journey. He came over from France, learned from many in Silicon Valley.

Then he spent 3 years living in a one room flat, working 20 hours a day, existing on bagels and tuna fish.

Eventually, his product was launched.

He built a platform matching apartment seekers with apartment landlords in Paris.

It was the Parisian version of Westside Rentals.

After 5 years, he sold it for $23 million.

He had the passion, the persistence, and the GRIT to stick it out for 5 years until he mined his diamonds.

It's pretty clear only a small percentage of us have this special combination of stick-to-it-ness necessary to reach the gold.

The question I ask is this:

Can GRIT be learned?

I do think it can be cultivated if one is willing to dig very deeply into one's psyche and soul, to be patient and introspective enough to recognize what their purpose in life is.

It's not just about money.

For many, success and GRIT are about personal performance, stretching into higher levels of accomplishment.

For me, GRIT is more than personal growth.

It's a game I play with myself.

How much do I want it? How much commitment do I really have? What am I willing to do to demonstrate I really believe in something?

And most of all,

What am I willing to risk, to endure to have it?

When I started my business 24 years ago (25 this March) I declared I would never have another boss again, never write another resume again, no matter what.

I declared that I would have support myself in a business I loved, focused on helping people have careers they loved, and were financially successful in them.

That's held true ever since - through so many ups and downs.

Giving up crossed my mind many times, but I never let those thoughts drive my car.

Do I got GRIT?

I think it's my middle name.

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