Gettin Gritty Wit It

 Throughout my life and career, I have often wondered what causes some to emerge victorious no matter the scenario. It's easy to win when the conditions for winning are easy. In contrast, it's easy to quit when the conditions to quit are easy. What is the ingredient in the human character that causes someone to win when the conditions to quit are easy? What causes someone to persevere when it makes no sense? What causes a man or woman to strive a little longer when every adversity is against them? The answer is a key to success that few possess. It's called grit.

 Webster defines grit as follows: "firmness of mind or spirit : unyielding courage in the face of hardship or danger "
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Growing a cleaning company to any level of success is hard. You will face obstacles, hardship, and who knows... danger. Will you develop the grit you will need to survive and thrive? That's up to you. You may ask....what could come against me growing a cleaning company? The answers are endless. The biggest obstacle is other people. People will try to steal your dream. They will tell you that it won't work. Why would you waste your college education? They will criticize you. The hardest part is that they will likely be the people closest to you. Will you survive this onslaught? You will get rejected by potential customers... a lot. Can you handle that? You will work so hard to serve clients for months and even years and they will cancel service with no warning. How will you handle that? What if you lose your biggest client as we just did this week? Will you fold it up and quit? If you ever hire employees, oh my! There are so many obstacles there.

My Pop-Pop used to say when I was a kid. "Kenny, are you a winner?" I'd respond. "Yes, Pop-Pop." He'd simple say. "Good. Winners never quit and quitters never win." I heard this enough and actually believed him. I was programmed with grit as boy. Others were programmed the opposite way. "You'll never win. You can't do it, why even try. No one in our family ever makes it." My Pop-Pop helped me develop a winner's mindset early on.

There is a profound difference in a winner's mindset and a loser's mindset. Before I explain the difference, let me ask you a question. Where does failure belong? Is it part of winning or losing? This is definitely a trick question. It's both. Failure is neutral. You will fail at many things you try. The best hitters in baseball fail 70% of the time. You will encounter failure. The person with a winner's mindset will embrace the failure, learn from it, grow forward, and keep going until they reach success. The person with a loser's mindset will quit when failure strikes... and it will.   What is the opposite of winning? It's not failing or losing. It's quitting. Once you quit, you lose the opportunity to win. Someone losing and not quitting has the potential to turn it around to win. Failure is not fatal unless it's final. That's the impact of quitting. It's what my Pop-Pop taught me years ago and I'm so grateful.

I make it sound easy. It's not easy to be losing and failing again and again. It's not easy to lose loved ones, lose property, overcome addiction or abuse. I firmly believe that anyone can overcome anything if they had enough grit. Think of something gritty like sandpaper. What does it do? It smoothes the object rubbed against it. When we become gritty, we too can smooth circumstances around us.

How do you develop grit? Can you read about it and just do it?  To be honest, I don't know for sure. But I do know this. You have to start somewhere. Overcome a hardship once and you will add grit to your character. Each hardship you embrace and overcome will add another layer.


Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website