As I was watching my daughter’s third-grade girl basketball team win the championship, I was in awe. They didn’t win it because it was expected of them. They won it against all odds.
The team was the third best in the league. They entered the last three games expected to stay the third best. They were the only team that played with no substitutes (there were 5 girls on the team while the rest had at least 8), which meant no one got a break during each of the three games. They played all three games on the same day, with only one-hour break in between. And they played two strongest teams, one of which went undefeated… until the championship game. By the last game the girls were exhausted. One was bleeding a bit, taking a hard hit on the nose. One was so tired she was crying. At half time of the championship game, the coach asked them what they wanted to do: quit or rally. They chose the latter. And boy, did they rally. It was amazing to watch. I was mesmerized.
They didn’t win because they were the best. They won because they had grit.
I left that day thinking: “If eight-year-old girls can do that, nothing is impossible.”
And then I thought about start-ups I have watched succeed and fail in my lifetime. Some I worked for, some I partnered with, some I coached. Granted, one can’t oversimplify the reasons for company’s success or failure. But the older I get, the more I think it all comes down to one thing. And that one thing is grit.
Grit is defined as “courage and resolve; strength of character.”
As start-ups grow up, most lose their grit.
Grit to continue to put their customers before their sales numbers.
Grit to retain the culture that got them to where they were in the first place.
Grit to give a damn about the people who sacrificed because they believed in the vision (and I don’t mean the founder(s), rather the ordinary employees that made the company extraordinary).
Grit to hire leaders, not managers. (And yes, there is a huge difference).
Grit to deprioritize founder’s ego.
Etc. Etc.
Because at the end of the day, your product won’t matter. Your funding won’t matter. Your big-name advisers won’t matter. What will matter is whether people want to work with you. Your people, your culture, your strength of character and your passion – aka grit – will be the things that will take your company to the next level. Because people can spot fake miles away. People can see the dollar signs in your eyes the second you walk into the room. And people will always know how you treat others, because… well… stories spread.
Yes, I may be oversimplifying it. Yes, there are a lot of factors to success. Timing, connections, strategy. Before the championship, the coach watched other teams closely as they played. He noticed who was the strongest on the team, what plays they used, what was their coach pushing them to do during the game. So winning the game required some strategy and practice. That helped. But at the end of the day what won that game was pure grit. (Oh, I know you are probably smiling and thinking to yourself: “It’s third-grade basketball game. How strategic or brutal can it be?” You may be right. But then again, you may not be.)
That’s the thing about grit. It defies logic. I’ve seen some of the most brilliant people fail because they lacked either guts or compassion or both. And I’ve seen people with no education lead others in ways the Harvard-educated folks would never even dream of. And I’ve seen visionaries who can’t lead people at all. That is because no matter what you call it – strength of character, guts, courage – nothing will ever be as important to not only growing your company, but sustaining it’s success long-term, as grit.
You can’t convince people to follow you, to partner with you, to buy from you if you don’t have the strength of character and the guts to do what’s right. If you treat people like disposable tools. If at the end of the day you put money before compassion. Money is not the goal. It’s the result of being great.
If you liked this post, you might enjoy this one: “People Join Because of Great Vision, People Leave Because of Poor Leadership.”