No Shortcuts To The Top! Just have to put one foot in front of another.
Grit to Grind
Grit has been used relentlessly over the past several years, probably going back to the remake of True Grit with Jeff Bridges playing the part of John Wayne. I am pretty sure I saw grit used for every possible way of showing how hard a person works. The word grit became overused and has since pretty much disappeared like a clothing fad.
The other day, I got into a conversation talking about thestokelab.com and what my goals are for the website with a friend of mine who runs a successful business in the Roaring Fork Valley. In fact, their business is one of the leaders in electrical contracting and installations for about 40 plus years in this area. My friend has taken over the reins of the company from his father, and the business can’t be busier.
The company has expanded to include other areas of Colorado including the Denver area. This expansion is not normal for a company to go from the mountains to the front range. I asked my friend after explaining thestokelab.com to him, “What did he think made his company so successful?”
Grind was the first word and idea that came to him, as we stood there talking. I immediately understood what he meant as I had run a business in the Roaring Fork Valley for fourteen years. But I had to ask him because I didn’t want to assume what would be his definition. Hard work done every day is grinding. There are no short cuts, he told me. You have to provide the same high-quality product every time.
He has some younger electricians working under him who want to reinvent the wheel with some way of saving time while doing a project. The end result is a re-do to do the project the right way. There is time tested ways of completing a task. But in order to do these tasks completely, you can’t take short cuts.
My friend has been asked to speak about his success at different electrical meetings with other contractors who want to learn the magical answer to success. He said the magic is doing the right thing every day, grind. Grind away every day. There is no magic.
How does one grind? Grinding takes grit. You have to hunker down and do what is not pleasant. The hard way comes with a work ethic that can’t be avoided. Your customers have to see repetitive excellence, especially in this day of social media, a reputation is everything. Too many bad experiences and your business will be affected, and your vision of long term success will be diminished.
Systems must be put in place in order to achieve continuing repetitive excellence. Your systems must be tested and updated to adapt to any changes in your business. I used to cater a lot, and my friend was a client. He hired us for continuing educations classes for his employees. He wasn’t satisfied with the present. He was gearing up for the future and being able to adapt to new codes and new ways of being a better electrician.
After talking to my friend’s brother, who works with him about bidding out a project he was confident he was going to lose to a competitor, I asked him how he felt about the bid. He responded that they couldn’t compromise their quality. And sometimes people used their bid to get a lay of the land for other bids from other electrical contractors. Basically, their company’s standards won out with getting projects, more than they lost to other cheaper less-qualified businesses.
No shortcuts. Grind. Use Grit to stay on top.
Grit is the ability to be tough mentally and physically to continually get a job or task done.
Grinding is the actual doing. Hard work. No easy ways out.
Keep your standards, people will notice.
Reputation for hard, high-quality work is essential.
You can’t win them all, but you must be true to yourself.
