The day I am writing this, I have just snuck into the office after spending part of the day working outside around the Financialoscopy building. I was making sure the shrubbery was ready for the year, re-spreading rocks after the snow plows and shoveling had moved them around, and preparing everything for springtime, summertime, and into the fall.
Why am I talking about this? Because I want to talk about grit.
People sometimes want money and resources to automatically come to them without putting in the time, without putting in the effort, without putting in the grit that is required.
I think of people from our own community. One man built a national company, yet at one time he was a homeless veteran sleeping in a chicken coop. Another young couple created their own company, but when they came to town, they had no money — only sweat, which they knew how to spend. And I remember a couple that built a company with a big footprint in Wisconsin. Today, they donate their Social Security checks every month to nonprofit organizations because they simply don’t need them.
Each of these people started with basically nothing, but they had something powerful: Grit.
Early in our married life, my wife and I decided we needed to put in the effort and the sweat. We invested in real estate projects. I remember our first rental and the many three-day weekends we spent working instead of relaxing — Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends. My wife would work on one property while I worked on another — painting and cleaning from Friday through Monday night.
One evening, I came home exhausted, and my wife said, “We had better be smart about this.” When I asked why, she reminded me that our friends had spent the weekend boating and partying on the Mississippi River, enjoying the sandbars.
We had very little money, but the one thing we could spend was our sweat and our grit.
Grit is such an important element of success, especially in your 20s through your 50s. And even in your 60s, it’s still worth putting in the time and energy required to get ahead.
Not everyone will do what it takes, and that’s their choice. But don’t expect unbelievable returns in your life if you’re only willing to do what everyone else is doing.
Instead, it’s about focus – your focus. It’s about sweat. It’s about grit.
