Today, we’re going to look at one word. Yes, just one. I’ve become quite fascinated with this word. It is a well-known word, and not super complicated. But it’s a word that needs to be used and applied more often in business. In fact, we’re going to look at it specifically with business development in mind.
The word is grit. There’s a whole bunch of ways to define grit, and here are a few to think about: courage, bravery, a backbone or strength of will. But I personally like these: steel, nerve, fortitude, toughness, resolve, determination, tenacity, perseverance, endurance, and so on. These are all the words that encompass grit. Now, what does grit look like in business development? Well, I came up with five examples, and they are:
1. At the end of the day, when you’re tired, you pick up the phone and make one more sales call anyway.
2. A huge number of prospects say no to you, but you keep going. You get no after no, rejection after rejection, until you finally get that one much-deserved yes.
3. Getting up at 5:15AM and pre-planning your day before a 7AM networking or business development event.
4. Grit is also mental toughness. For example, trying something new or different that you have never done before.
5. Living off of 100% commission, or starting your own business.
Those are five examples of grit, and obviously I believe in work-life balance, so I’m not saying that you should become a workaholic, grinding out seven days a week. But sometimes, we just have to get up and get it done. We have to make that extra call or work that extra hour, and give a little bit more effort. And sometimes it takes a resolve, a toughness to be able to overcome rejection again and again in order to make it happen. People talk about strategy or process, which are both good. But when you really think about it, grit helps all those things happen.
And so I want to encourage you to act on grit this week. Have a better than amazing day!
