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Grit and Discipline: Navigating Business Challenges and Personal Growth
101 Plays1 year ago
In this episode of The Better Contractor, Brent Oberlink and Travis May explore the essential qualities of grit and discipline, drawing on their personal experiences in the military and entrepreneurship. They delve into the distinctions between externally imposed and self-imposed discipline, and how these concepts translate into the business world. The discussion also covers the four key components of grit—courage, perseverance, adaptability, and resilience—as outlined in Rich Davini's book "Attributes." Through anecdotes and reflections, they illustrate how these traits are crucial for overcoming unexpected challenges, such as those faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, and for achieving long-term success in business. The episode wraps up with an inspiring story about learning from failure and the importance of maintaining a long-term vision, underscoring the role of resilience and adaptability in personal and professional growth.
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Transcript
Introduction and Opening Jokes
00:00:12
Speaker
Welcome back to another edition of The Better Contractor today, as always. Actually, we did do our first podcast of the day without you. But hollowed. I know. It was too it was feeling too late at night for you. You're old. You're way older. It is 9.30 right now. It means I'm not getting up at 4. Anyway, my co-host 99% of the time. Travis, how are you, man? Good. Good to see you. Good to
Why Do Business Owners Need Grit?
00:00:45
Speaker
see you. So today we're going to talk about grit. So grit is something, well, no matter what you're doing in life, you need grit. I'm assuming a lot of people listening to this podcast are probably business owners, which means you need extra grit. So, cause it is going to throw some, life is going to throw some circumstances and decisions and other things at you that are going to almost at times see dehabilitating. So the,
00:01:11
Speaker
development and of grit is going to be so important for you long-term. You know, I look back at like, you know, we've been in business 17 years and started the business for the young, but I can think of three points during that 17 years where I'm like, this, that might, this might be it. I don't know. This feels pretty, this feels pretty tough. I'm not sure how I'm going to get through this. And that sense, that overwhelming sense of like, man, I got to push, I got to push. Can we make it? I don't know. but We're going to try. But I look back on those and, you know, obviously don't want to necessarily go through those ever again, but gosh, develop some grit and deeper thought and and the ability to navigate those waters differently than I would have if I'd never been given that struggle. You know, so.
00:02:08
Speaker
From a leader perspective, it does set you up to be able to do bigger things. and and And actually all of those things, we improve the business as a result of those items, those things that happen. And I think that's one of the keys to this is saying, hey, we're facing this tough point, whatever it may be, financially safety issues, employee issues, COVID, whatever it is. We faced this, we made these changes and now we're better. That was still a slump and it's still hurt. That's not taking that away from it. But we're better as a result of having went through it. But it's having
Discipline Insights from Military Experience
00:02:45
Speaker
that vision. I think that is a lot of what is great with business anyway, um is having that vision that fortitude to see it through. Being able to show up on days when there is no motivation.
00:02:58
Speaker
You know, I think one of the podcasts or I saw it online recently, Mike Tyson, who's obviously in the news a lot more right now because of the potential upcoming fight. But there's a clip of him somewhere talking about the difference in like great and good people is showing up even when you're not motivated to everybody can do it. Like, Hey, I feel like going to the gym today. Hey, I feel like doing this today. I feel like being a business owner today. Today's good. I made a sale. Those days are easy to show up. When it's not those things, when you lost two clients, when you got a lawsuit notification and a certified letter, when you have all these other different things, COVID hits, your business is shut down. Those days aren't motivating. Do you still show up on those days? That is the discipline portion. And then sometimes those seasons, those valleys, they may not be a week. They may be months, they may be a year.
00:03:53
Speaker
That is when the discipline really kicks in and that is when the grid is developed if it's not already been developed. But anyway, I've talked a lot in the beginning. Travis, I'm going to toss it to you. I think the two topics with grit and discipline coming out of the military, they' they're almost ingrained. It doesn't matter what branch of service you go into, you're going to deal with with some of that. And then I think with what you're saying with business owners, and I think everybody can probably relate to this in all aspects of their life. and We all handle things a little bit differently. So discipline being one of those that's most closely tied to military or structured, but then also into the entrepreneurial world. But as discipline, it's really two forms of discipline. There's the discipline that's imposed in on you or self-imposed discipline. And the discipline that's imposed on you is
00:04:47
Speaker
short term in the sense that you can have somebody, so given with the military context, a drill instructor or somebody impose discipline on you to get up and go do things. It's like a fire accelerant, this fuel, it's gasoline, it will burn really hot and bright, but it won't last, versus a self-imposed discipline being more like stained fuel. It's wood, it's something that's dry it and it will burn for a longer period of time. It's the discipline that you've set things, his motivation will come and go. and And it's a discipline that persists, but the disciplines typically decided upon outside of the emotional state in that you've decided this is a course or something that needs to to be done or happen or result. And regardless of how I feel,
00:05:39
Speaker
I'm going to do it. And that would be the self-imposed, and that lasts a lot longer, and it actually produces the the results longer term. So the discipline component, yeah, it's broken into two parts, imposed on you, or self
Exploring Grit: Key Components
00:05:53
Speaker
-imposed. And the self-imposed is obviously the more desirable one that leads to longer term success. But the grit component. So the there's there's a book. yeah I think we mentioned it a few times in other podcasts. we might We're going to try and get the author on at some point, but attributes. So he's got a section in there about grit, but talking about high-performing teams, and and it covers a lot of areas. But the thing I found fascinating about grit was it framed it in a way I had never seen it before, as far as breaking it down in two chunks that would help me understand it. Because grit, you took determination or the ability to stick with things.
00:06:32
Speaker
And I think the way Rich Devaney in the book attributes broke it down was really in four components that grit has four sections. There's courage, and the the courage is acting and not in the absence of fear, but being able to function despite being afraid. But one of the things that that I know that he had in there is that courage cannot exist in the absence of fear. so So having the courage to move forward in something, but you can't have courage courage without fear. ah And then the second area was perseverance. And that's somewhat defined as doing something consistently over time. Despite how difficult it is, you're you're persevering and you're continuing to do something. But he broke that out, too. you And he gave a couple of examples. so there's
00:07:22
Speaker
like the rock sculptor, like I was chiseling away and sculpting something out of rock versus the mechanic because he broke it out. He said, persistence requires patience and ah tenacity. So persistence requires patience and tenacity is different. It requires impatience. But yeah perseverance is really a balance between persistence and tenacity in that. ah if you take those two examples. So for the mechanic, so persistence is doing the same thing over and over and over, and tenacity is doing one thing after the other, trying different things. So if you took the mechanic,
00:08:01
Speaker
persistence would be, you're you're looking at like the belt, and you just keep looking at the belt over and over and over, and however it continues to make some noise that's unidentified, but you continue looking at the same thing. So persistence and tenacity and in perseverance, those two components being in perseverance, it might require different things within perseverance. So it's either you're persistent or you have tenacity, so you might need to adapt and move on to other things, but both of those are comprised of perseverance. And then adaptability, so you had courage, perseverance, adaptability was the third one, and that's what the Mike Tyson thing is.
00:08:43
Speaker
What's one of his favorite? Everybody has a plan and to get hit in the face. So having having your plan, most plans don't actually survive first contact. Most plans don't actually go exactly the way you thought they would and your ability to adjust quickly to any situation at any time. So that would be adaptability and then the resilience component. So yeah all four of those being a part of grit, but that resilience piece was beyond just being able to bounce back, but he dug really deep into you having a baseline of ah excitedness and happiness versus lows and depressions. And really resilience is getting back to whatever your baseline is. This is 50% or whatever, just your even keel. No matter what happens, a triumph in your life or something catastrophic
00:09:39
Speaker
can take you into lows or it can take you into highs and both have consequences if you don't come back to your baseline, where it's stable and even, and this is where resilience comes in. the If you stay too much in either one of those directions, so let's say something happens, COVID, and it starts to impact your business and you something happens where it takes you low, it takes you beyond that below that baseline of where you're even keel, That low point in the way that you're thinking and behaving will affect other decisions, will affect other things that that come along. And it will kind of have a compounding effect and continue to take you lower and lower, ultimately leading to depression and and worse if you can't get back to the baseline. And then the the opposite is true as well. If you have a high and you don't come back to the baselines, some of that can materialize or manifest into
00:10:38
Speaker
ego into complacency or arrogance. So if you don't come back down off that high where you think in a lot of yourself and you have this inflated ego, it can lead to ah detrimental consequences equal to the low.
The Role of Resilience in Business
00:10:55
Speaker
So I loved that that the it was just a unique approach that I'd seen to help break out or define grit into There's a bunch of subcomponents there, courage, perseverance, adaptability, and resilience, and how important it is to know where you are on any one of those, but to to embody that in any given situation. And we all have different elements of that at different times, and to always seek to get better and understand that about yourself. But ultimately, it comprises of grit, which is grit helps us get through the difficult times.
00:11:33
Speaker
I like all four of those points. I think the resilience one is is really neat. Because if you look at it like with business owners, I think especially, you It's staying in the game during those tough times. I think those are the ones that end up winning long term. I think at times it gets tough enough and some people will drop out. you know Or they gave up and they didn't think through and think of a solution. They didn't have that great resilience to to see it through that hard and that long. Sometimes it takes that long to find the solution.
00:12:05
Speaker
or to dig down it and find the passion to reignite and keep this thing going. And I think a lot of your successful business owners, almost all of them will have some sort of variation of this trait of grit resilience because that's what it takes to keep to keep it going, to get it to pass that five year tenure point to actually have some success. Because you're going to have the ups and downs and honestly, the bigger you get, the more ah extreme some of those happen. And I think sometimes those beginning years set you up for that growth pattern you have later to be able to handle them when they come at a later date. um And and you you look at the the adaptability versus the the perseverance, where it's persistency versus tenacity. When you talk about like COVID, I think in one of the previous conversations we talked about pivoting and your ability to, ah that would be adaptability. yes So as things
00:12:58
Speaker
coming to we'll use COVID again just because it's top of it like every kind of remember that happened pretty pretty recently and almost a black swan event for most people you didn't really plan for that wasn't on your roadmap that stuff would be shut down shut down for as long as it did the supply chain issues all kinds of questions about health and impact and what's next week in like and unfortunately we've as a society have gotten used to it already which is unfortunate you know, used to and almost okay with what happened. And when you really go back in in time
Adapting to COVID: Business Pivots
00:13:35
Speaker
and actually think through how it was handled, wow. That's the whole podcast in itself. But yeah, there's a lot there's a lot coming to light through FOIA requests that ah hundred it was drastically different
00:13:51
Speaker
than what the public was. so and And they 100% knew it and were communicating in back channels and emails and things. that was So that it's not to say that something like that won't be tried or happen again. And I think that's maybe part of the the point of this is great resilience understanding. doing a post-mortem of stuff like that, and how did you handle it? What went right? What went sideways? How can you improve yourself? That adaptability, the pivoting component, it wasn't part of your plan. How did you adapt? And then the tenacity and perseverance and persistence. So did you continue? So an example with that would be the persistence, this the two parts of the perseverance.
00:14:42
Speaker
ah the persistence of, we I'm just going to keep doing the same thing over and over. That might be called for in some cases. I know that this is right, but if it's not working, the tenacity, maybe maybe we try something different, but we keep going. But that perseverance, adaptability and perseverance with COVID and like, yeah, I mean, again, I really loved that breakdown of understanding. so There are multiple components of grit. that keep going, but there there's is multifaceted aspects of keep going. It doesn't mean you just keep beating your head again. Maybe you need to pivot. Maybe there's some adaptability, but keep going. but Maybe you need to try something different, but keep going. Yeah. And one of your points in the show notes was um having a long-term vision. So obviously, grit, you're going to have different scenarios. you know There's going to be things like COVID that completely unexpected and you never thought of, they're going to hit.
00:15:37
Speaker
There's going to be events or something that happens, maybe it's health issues or whatever it is. Personal. The long-term vision one, I like that one. So it also takes grit to develop your business at the very beginning. You know, so I kind of think back. We actually did a shoot for Lander Corp. And funny enough, the site we were at was the very first site that I sold in 2007, so 17 years ago. And I haven't been there since probably 2012. So it's been probably 12 years since I've been there. But I still remember how to drive to get to this site, like it's about an hour from here.
00:16:17
Speaker
And it brought back a lot of memories. And I was with our JD who we had on and also our, she was shooting some video and stuff. I was talking to her about it when we got there, but it was almost a surreal thing to pull back up to that job site 17 years later and all the memories of that timeframe. Cause that was that those struggle years. You know what I mean? And that was a different type of grit. And I break it up because of long-term vision. That's kind of what pushed me through that because I was so focused on that vision of what I saw whenever it was gonna be, three years, five years, two years, hopefully sooner, that I just was pushing. Whatever it took, whatever I had to do, we were gonna get it done. Anyway, I'll tell a brief story on that client. I won't name their name, but I wanted to get into oil and gas doing what we do now. um At that time,
00:17:11
Speaker
what we do now right away clearing tree trimming all that kind of stuff for easements was not even something I was really that aware of.
Long-term Vision and Sustaining Grit
00:17:18
Speaker
I was just trying to get in there doing you know industrial lawn care ah herbicide applications inside the refineries basically grounds maintenance for oil and gas and I knew I had to start small if I wasn't going to land a refinery on day one with no experience and no employees. So I was going after these little small sites and I remember you know, being young, not having a history, not having a safety record. Safety records are huge when it comes to our line of work. I didn't have that because it the company didn't exist. the the The number was zero. So looking at that, I knew I had to overcome that somehow. So I started this tiniest little company, you know, local pipeline company, a small one. And I went to another small size. I drove by, I messaged, I forget how I either messaged or called or whatever this guy.
00:18:05
Speaker
did not think he would call back or respond because most of them at that point had not at all. And he calls me back. He's like, I got these two small sites in these two towns in the middle of nowhere. And I'm having trouble finding a contractor to do them because they're so remote and they're so small. Do you want a shot? I was like, I'll do whatever. I'll take them. So I went up and looked at them, took these two small sites. They didn't they didn't amount to 7,000 a year in business, to be honest, probably. you know and But I remember doing those, and we were doing other stuff as well at the time. We were actually doing some stuff in the ag industry, trying to make ends meet. But anyway, my point with that story is, because we were doing other stuff, I had another job. I was still trying to work. We were spraying farm fields for hire to try to make ends meet. It was all part of the business. um There was a lot of times that we mowed that site at night. And when we pulled up, I was telling JD, is it at a T road?
00:19:05
Speaker
And I remember I would work all day, grab a buddy, borrow my dad or my brother's mower and trailer, pull it with my truck. And we would park our truck on that T with the brights on. And we would mow that site at 10, 11 midnight. And then there's a Denny's down the road and I would reward him. I'd pay him and reward him with a little late night dinner at Denny's. But good memories. Do I want to do that now? Absolutely not. But anyway, my point with that story is you've got to start somewhere. And that was the grit that developed into to what it is today. But anyway, it was a humbling to experience.
00:19:44
Speaker
A neat experience to go back to that site and kind of relive some of those memories. um But my point with that is the vision was the grit that got me through those years of seeing, hey, this is where I think you can go. I'll do all of it. And we still we still do this site. We still have it as our first client and we still do it. We do a lot more with them now than just those two sites, but we still have that site, which is cool to still have it 17 years later.
Leadership Lessons in Discipline
00:20:11
Speaker
One of our... I think the guys probably do. I honestly don't do do the work. that yeah You went back out and visited. Did you stop the Denny's? We didn't. It was way too early for Denny's. Denny's like my thing at 7 a.m. That's late night thing. But anyway, the vision having that vision to push through on that grit, you know, and it took us. I'd say Atlanta Corp was decent within three years, but still three years is a long time to push and to have that grit and to go. So anyway.
00:20:40
Speaker
but After the Marine Corps came back worked in corporate America for a number of years got recruited worked overseas in Afghanistan for Contract was intelligenceran the kind countries intelligence intelligence program Ran teams out of Kabul in Kandahar The there's a period where we had comms so and and this is Not only that the radios that the the teams used on the ground, but that the comms teams supplied the radios for the aircraft. We had transport helicopters and fixed wing, but the helicopters needed special radios that were filled with secure communications and in crypto. So it took special skills and talent and you had to secure those radios.
00:21:31
Speaker
every night after each mission. And then in the morning, you program those radios, go put them into the aircraft. And so we had a comms team. So they had lost their we'd lost our comms department leader or manager for it for the country. i I don't know what happened to it got quit, quit, it got fired or something. And so they gave me so I was running the intelligence team at the time, I think it was year two or three. So I'm in my 30s. End up given that the the comms team as well. So I don't have a comms background. ah I've used the the UHF, VHF radios and things but don't have don't really have a background in that but was gifted at the comms team. So yeah this isn't a lightweight,
00:22:20
Speaker
inconsequential roles. This is a but as far as the comms team and what they're responsible for every mission and they go so that the missions that are being flown are are direct action missions, most of them. So more transporting dignitaries and and ambassadors and State Department people and things but 60 70% of the others, they're in direct combat yeah on the ground or with ground forces and with special operations. So but it's not a ah light position for the for them to hold. So gifted the comms team. I have a a new guy. So I'm open Kabul at the time. I have a relatively new guy down in Kandahar.
00:23:00
Speaker
So the missions would typically go 5 a.m., 6 a.m., you're launching, so you're briefing, you're doing all the preparatory and the aircraft are getting the crews ready. You've already eaten breakfast and everything's ready, but you're prepping the aircraft and doing the briefs and things for 4.30 in the morning. And then everything has to be ready because you've got launch times and the schedule and multinational forces that are meeting you there. So you can't slide. Everything's down by the minute. So I have a relatively new guy, Dan in Kandahar. The comms guys are typically up with the crews way before even the mission brief, but they'll attend the mission briefs too. So they're in there, they're passing the word, getting new updates. And then they go with the crews out and get the radios out of the safe and put them in the aircraft.
00:23:50
Speaker
So I get a call, yeah so I think I'm briefing that morning up in Kabul for separate missions, and I get a call that the the guy's not there, that the radios aren't there, and that they had to go secure the radios or procure themself and wake somebody else up. And so chalk it up to him, mishap, talk to him, hey, I apologize. there There is a miscommunication or alarm or something go off. So two days later, we're doing another mission. And similar thing happens. They had to go knock on this guy's door. So we lived on the camp as well as operate where we operated. And they had to go knock on his door. And they woke him up. So they're they're ready to lift aircraft off and go on this mission. We've got the special operations team, all the crews, the timeline. And they realize they don't have the radios if they're doing the pre-flight. So they have to go run over there, get him. And then, obviously, that's not just a quick thing.
00:24:45
Speaker
and so i talk with the I actually fly down there and meet with him and say, what's what's going on? And what happened was he was playing video games all night. So there's a guy in his 30s. And this isn't this isn't some, you're professionals at this point. If you're at this level operating, this isn't he just came out of comms school and there's some rookie. yeah He played video games all night, overstuffed his alarm, and we almost completely had to scrub missions or push timelines for a very serious operation. and
00:25:17
Speaker
So this is a leadership moment for me, too, in that I was kind of black and white at that point, too, in that as I look at the character's law. This is not the level where you you're having that type of missteps. If that's in him, if he doesn't have the discipline and the maturity to understand what he should or should not be doing the night before, and have backups or whatever. like if If he doesn't have that discipline, that's a character flaw. That's not something we're going to train out of him, nor is this the place to train out of him. And I was running a fire room. I was like, hey, let let's send him home. It ended up having some leadership come in and say, well, let's put him on a performance improvement plan, which I was adamantly opposed to. He was like, look, it's not like I'm going to put him on this little plan in three weeks. that This is a design flaw within his character right now that he needs to work on a fix. and
00:26:11
Speaker
It ended up being, put him on the performance improvement plan, and within a week, it was a complete 180.
Learning from Failure
00:26:17
Speaker
And that completely changed my my some of my leadership understanding and leading teams later, but he ended up becoming a rock star. And and the dude was super talented. yeah i He let certain things, he let the lack of discipline, impact negatively and and then he could have, and so we're talking about resiliency at that point too, that for him could have been a huge low. but He was about to get fired. I was about to send him home. And this is kind of a dream job. There's not that many of those for it for them getting paid really well, doing some really cool stuff. He bounced back, made made back to the the even heel, had the ability to pivot and had adaptability.
00:27:05
Speaker
to correct that what was wrong, imposed self-discipline again, and ended up being so he, so I left, I think two years later, he was there for several years after that. And he was still talked about, he lives not far from me now. And we had kind of a little reunion and had a bunch of guys over. I don't think I've actually, I think I've actually talked to him about this, but, but yeah, ah but what an incredible, I mean, full cycle of going through that and having grit
00:27:36
Speaker
He could have easily sunk down a depression or lows or questioned himself or not adapted, a not imposed the self-discipline, which actually put him in the position, where but a real example of completely flipping around and like a two by four to the back of the head. It can be done. We'll find ourselves in positions, maybe not that drastic, but yeah I guess there's two lessons. individually, if we find ourselves going through challenges, we always have the ability to to change it, to correct it, to adapt and press through it, have the grit, impose the discipline. But then two is from a leadership perspective. yeah trying to make I don't know that I did much coaching. though That was a learning point for me. I was pretty black and white. He was going home.
00:28:31
Speaker
He imposed a lot of that. I could have been better and later when I was faced with other leadership challenges, leading teams, I did take a different approach and I ah mentored or coached a little bit through some of this stuff. But from a leadership perspective, helping those people through and and maybe giving them a second chance or especially if they're younger, like that wouldn't, it's not an apples to apples is here because he that wasn't an entry-level position for him. But some of these younger generations, I've been there too. When I was 18 or 19, I screwed up. And I didn't necessarily have the fortitude or the wherewithal or the the grit or the discipline, maybe where I should have. And I know that I've been given grace by by several mentors. through
00:29:17
Speaker
but have some grace, coat coach people up, help them develop the grit because it will serve them well throughout the rest of their life. Well, I think, you know, you teed it up nice for one of the points in the show notes, which is learning from failure. So learning from mistakes, you know, that guy could have easily just stayed in that whatever mindset or slump he was in for that moment. He could have stayed there, and then he never would have been where he ended up being. But that's not what he did. you know He's like, hey, I messed up. And then he made the change. And like you said, he ended up you know being one of your rock stars later. So that's a very good example of the learning from failure or learning from, hey, this is a little slump in my life or whatever it may be. you know Obviously, he was off, but he fixed it.
00:30:02
Speaker
So I think that's an important point of that one. And also, it also kind of highlights the importance of consistency, you know the consistent discipline and not letting your foot off the gas or whatever. you know It's easy as a business owner or not just business owners, but it's easy to do that. you know Different life events or whatever, you know we've all had it. you know But that's a good example where whatever he had going on that night, he didn't show up quite as expected the next day and you all paid for it. And especially in a team sitting like that is even It's a huge deal. You know, if you're a business owner and you're a solopreneur, that's one thing. You're the only one that pays for it. You know, your business or growth or whatever you, but if you're in a team study like that, man, you just lost the respect of a bunch of team members as well.
Consistency and Positive Mindset
00:30:43
Speaker
They have impact.
00:30:45
Speaker
Yeah, across. We would we would do partner and agencies would partner with and we had them on that mission. that yeah that's your That's your reputation. That's your brand. yeah that That's who you hire. That's who's on your team. We don't want to work with those guys again. yeah but I think one one of the things that was awesome about that so is his remarkable turnaround. Yeah, yeah it was 180 the next week. I never had a problem and it wasn't like he was coast and dune. He was a rock star. He saw out he immediately changed it.
00:31:19
Speaker
but complete ownership and discipline and self-discipline and just completely flipped it. so I mean, it can be done. Yeah. Yeah. Another one to show notes we had down was routine and consistency. So establishing routines. I think that's important too. And I look back at, you know, when we've had my wife and I are, you know, myself have had different things in business or in life and it is having that consistency, which kind of goes back to discipline is having structure. You know, structure is a big thing for like my personality type is structure is everything. Freedom is everything. It has to it needs to be my structure, but I like having structure. And I think that helps you in these times to be able to get up and to keep doing the steps, doing what it takes to keep that momentum and that ball moving forward.
00:32:08
Speaker
Even though it may feel like that day, it is not moving forward or you don't want to do it. Having that structure, the consistency and the routine, I think is so important. But then also positive mindset. I don't think that can be undervalued at all here. and you know I look at, not all, but a lot of the kind of greats that I kind of look up to, most of them in general are a little bit more optimistic than they're pessimistic. you know myself probably too optimistic at times, you know. So there's a couple people in my life through the years where I've used as kind of more of the pessimistic sounding board, you know, just to get a, especially when I was younger, I'm a little bit better as I've gotten older, but when I was younger, it was just, let's go, go, go. Let's just try it. What do we, what do we got to lose?
00:33:00
Speaker
So I had, it especially this person's past now, but I had one person that I would literally sit in a support suite with him and just blow stuff by him. Cause I knew he was going going to probably tell me, this is probably what's going to go wrong. You probably shouldn't do it. I was still going to do it, but I wanted to hear what he had to say. But having that positive mindset, I think is so key though, because what happens is when you get in those tough times, hopefully your mindset will help you to kind of see through. There is going to be a brighter day ah ahead. I don't know when that day's coming, but it is going to come. This is not going to be a valley for the entire rest of my life, but having that positive mindset is key. And I think the last one is that intrinsic motivation. You know, I look back.
00:33:42
Speaker
you know throughout the times for me and again we keep doing entrepreneurship here but it can be anything in life but having that motivation whereas deep down inside of you the intrinsic motivation to push through to see that end goal to see the vision or wherever whatever is you want to be that is what i think will help carry you through these harder times in life you know obviously you've got kind of more of a military background which is a whole different arena, still very similar to business, but more life and death scenarios, obviously, which does change the seriousness of things. um But having that intrinsic motivation, you know, ah the last kind of point I had, and I'll toss it back to you, Travis, was the discipline over motivation. You know, it feels weird that we've kind of talked about
00:34:32
Speaker
you know, Mike Tyson so much lately. But that was something that I just loved that he did was was that quote. And it stuck with me because, and I forget exactly how he worded it, but I just loved it because it's so true though. You know, cause everybody can show up when they're motivated. The winners are who shows up consistently and that's because they have that discipline which will then develop the grid. But anyway, Speaking of Tyson, is he doing that fight or no? Is that fight off now? I think it called off. I could be wrong, but I don't know how I feel about that. frank I think it's probably a publicity stunt, but still I've enjoyed watching his little ah training clips because the dude's what, 55, 56 years old? I still don't want to get punched, but I can tell you that. He's got an ulcer or something that that didnt I think the doctors are like, dude, if you get punched there, it's not going to be good.
00:35:28
Speaker
yeah but it's like some sort of persistent like like an ulcer sort of medical thing. Yeah, but he's willing to strap it back on man. I love it. I love it don't care if it's for a show. I I've enjoyed watching you know, honestly, it's been a story of resilience and comeback, you know, whether he does it or not, you know, for his age, the dude's in fighting shape. You know, watching him prep for it and stuff has been it either way. It's been neat to watch him on Instagram and stuff. but I mean, not to hold anybody up. I mean, everybody's flawed. Everybody's human. Everybody's got positives and negatives. But he does have ah injur an interesting story where he's obviously been in the limelight and he's had some really negative things. that ah But it seems like more in his later part of his life, it's more of an introspective. He's more... Yeah.
00:36:23
Speaker
principally driven and sharing and giving back in that regard and
Discipline vs. Motivation
00:36:28
Speaker
more balanced. I've enjoyed his interviews, actually, lately. Which I don't know that we saw a ton of that side of him in his younger years. yeah It was just anger, aggression, and yeah dark places. And that may have been developed with age, but yeah. So anyway. so there's there's a quote I use it a couple of time, or a couple of podcasts go, but it It really is one of those that stuck with me for years. And I guess it does come down into grit, too. But the positive attitude in that, it's Anthony Robbins' quote of, you can't always control what happens to you, but you can control how you respond to you and ah what it means to you. OK. We don't have it. It can be negative. And this made me think of another one of some people's
00:37:24
Speaker
I forget who who had it, but was if anything bad happens to you, you get two minutes to wallow in self-pity. I've heard that very similar. and then And then come right back. like Go ahead, take take your hit. say talk Think about how bad things are and you get two minutes and then give it. And it kind kind of goes back to discipline too. so It's beyond just motivation. So the motivation is fickle. Sometimes you've been motivated. some I wake up at four, 4.30. You think it's crazy? it That's self-imposed. I hate mornings. But ah part of that, and I've gotten better as I've gotten older, of turning the voice off in that your your little internal voice knows exactly how to
00:38:14
Speaker
to talk to you, to get you to not do things that you should do. The self-imposed discipline, I know that I need to do X. And I decided this in an unemotional state that I know that I need to do this because it'll lead to these this and this. Well, when it comes time to do that, your inner voice knows you and knows exactly how to talk you out of that. And it's to shut that voice off. And it doesn't matter. I'm getting up. This is what I'm doing. um but Yes, I'm tired. yeah I could probably sleep 15 more minutes, and it's probably not going to make that big of a difference. So so shut the voice off, make the decision, and the internal self-discipline. If yes you made that in a sane,
00:39:02
Speaker
environment and you put your action steps in place, it's still relevant at four in the morning when you don't want to wake up and it's cold or you're tired. whatever You do it anyway. You shut the voice off and go do it. The motivation, it may it might be there more often if you're having to impose self-discipline. It's a different type of reward here. The motivation is what it's what the long-term goal is, not necessarily the individual
Challenges as Opportunities to Develop Grit
00:39:30
Speaker
step. But I've all the time been amazed too, like those days that you're talking about where you show up, even though you don't want to. And this this couldnna be this is the case for me a lot of times. Once I actually show up and start doing it, even though I didn't want to, all of a sudden yeah all of a sudden you're like, you know what? I like this.
00:39:48
Speaker
get You get the dopamine hit, you get the reward. So your your brain and and your body will reward you for doing the hard things. So you do get the reward. Yeah. Well, and sometimes I think that actually serves you well. So showing up when people don't want to and when you don't want to, once you start doing it, then you realize you just showed up when nobody else is. And it makes me think back to a, uh, I got to hear David Goggins speak in person i'm a but a few years back. I was just like, I'm curious to see if you're going to say the same thing that I would think, but go ahead. So anyway, so he's talking, talking. So obviously if you guys don't know him, he's a runner, crazy athlete, does crazy stuff that people, most people would never do.
00:40:31
Speaker
So in this and the summit, he was talking about getting up at a crazy time and running past these people's houses and basically looking at their each house and realizing their lights are off and basically using all that as a fuel to say, there is nobody on the street doing what I am doing. the And it just, go ahead, Travis. At my 4 a.m. Or whatever wake it like so I would listen to some of the the YouTube motivational stuff And that was one of the ones for it. He's been doing is look over here to the left Not a single light on no car look over to the right. It's three. I think it was he's like 330 or something like I Nobody I'm the only Colorful language out here right now and yeah, like I'm the only one doing the danger psyche for the rest of the day though I
00:41:21
Speaker
Yeah, I can think every time I've done that, you know, it does it does change your sake for the entire rest of that day, but Anyway, we probably should start wrapping this up a little bit any kind of closing thoughts or things you think we skip No, yeah, this is a good one I think Over the last five years or so we've all kind of gone through I mean there's been economic times there's been some crazy stuff that's happened in it's throughout the economies in the world. There's more stuff on the horizon. There's election season. There's plenty of opportunity for us to build grit and resilience. It feels like a more uncertain world, right? Or is it just me? It feels really unfair. Deliberate or or not, there's there's just so many moving pieces right now that are inconsistent with stability yeah in
00:42:18
Speaker
And in I think most people feel it too. But going back to COVID and as a society moving through that and all the challenges and the residual, that was definitely a challenging time and built characters and destroyed lives and built lives. And we're probably not done. There's probably more challenges ahead. And this is such an important topic. and that Also to use, I love hearing people's stories through this kind of stuff. One is it lets you know that you're not alone and that sometimes it's easy to to look from the outside of other people's lives where you don't know. There's somebody else that said years ago that se most people are dealing with craziness and things and problems and challenges that you know nothing about. and yeah Always keep that in mind in that
00:43:12
Speaker
the way that you treat other people, the way you behave and again, give people grace yeah in that they're probably dealing with some craziness just like you are and all you see is the the surface and it's it's easy to kind of look at the facade of other people and have the perspective that they had it easy and not realize that they they were grinding it out too. They were suffering and maybe when they came out on the other side, it was how they approached it. And if if it was the challenge and if it was the the obstacle, it would stop everybody. But if you find one or more people that came on the other side of that, that came from a similar background or came from a similar position and they got over the obstacle of the challenge, it's not the obstacle, it's you and it's your decision at that obstacle.
00:44:06
Speaker
and I think that's where it's it's helpful for when people share stories, you find the human connection, and you realize that yeah, when they are similar, they had it worse off than I did or came from different, and it can help temper if that what was me type mentality, but for you to also realize that you're not alone and that it can be done and there, and maybe it's my approach or maybe it's When I hit that challenge, there's something different that can be done and that I can get past it and the grit, the persistence to move past it. Yeah, I like that. I'll kind of wrap it up with this thought. It's my final thought for the day on this. Look for opportunities.
00:44:49
Speaker
to to develop grit. So choose, so there's some things in life. So fitness, so going to the gym, eating right, all these, they're little things. Like that's not going to completely change your life, but those are little things that you can do every single day that you do not have to do and choosing to do those things and doing them consistently and doing them even though you don't want to. So programs like 75 hard, for example, there's other programs after, there or just, doing it regardless of a program. You want to have a program to do it. But showing up, going to the gym, eating right, showing up for your spouse, showing up for your kids, and doing all those things consistently every day, those are things you can do to develop grit.
00:45:32
Speaker
And the more you have that structure, the more you have and you're doing those type of things, even though you don't want to, you are developing pathways and in a mindset inside of yourself that you may not have had before. And then when these big things hit, guess what? You are someone who is naturally disciplined because you do it every single day regardless. So that would be my kind of closing thought is, Choose some challenging things and walk through those doors every single day. Things that will benefit you like fitness, relationships, health, diet, stuff like that. Walk through those on purpose and develop that daily grit. So when these big things hit, you've developed at least a little level of grit. And these things will help having this consistency. We talked about consistency earlier, having that routine and consistency will help.
00:46:21
Speaker
you walk through those bigger risks as well or bigger challenges. So anyway, that's my closing thoughts. Travis, thank you. If you guys liked the podcast, please share it. If you didn't turn it off. See you next time.