The Grind
The night before that cup of coffee requires some work, however. I have to retrieve the bag of whole bean coffee from the cupboard. I have to retrieve the little electric grinder. I have to open the glass jar in which we store our ground coffee. It’s all a bit of a process. It’s a bit tedious. And after all that grinding there is a little bit of a mess that needs to be cleaned up! It’s not fun. But you know what? I love the grind!
How I Learned to Love the Grind
In my corporate life in orthopedic implant sales, I learned to love the grind! I invested 33 years of my life in the profession of orthopedic sales. I sold hip replacements, knee replacements, plates, and screws to put the skeletal system back together after trauma or disease.
I sold those implants to orthopedic surgeons. Those surgeons had 4 years of college, 4 years in medical school, 5 years in residency, and they typically completed a 1-year fellowship in their specialty. Typically, they had 10 years of post-graduate work before they ever went into practice.
These highly educated, highly skilled surgeons were my customers. It took years of study and practice, perseverance, and persistence to learn what they learned, to understand what they understood, before I could earn their trust. With that trust came the privilege of being invited into the operating room to care for their patients.
In the early years, the grind was hard and coarse. It was tedious. There was a process that had to be created, developed, and adhered to. It could be messy. Success did not come right away. I had to walk in faith if I wanted to help surgeons restore pain free walking to their patients. But through it all I learned to love the grind! Maybe it’s because I found working in the medical field to be a calling. I was inspired to serve mankind in this way. Maybe, it’s because I love science. I loved learning about kinematic form and function.
How the Grind Can Help You Succeed
Success is never a guarantee. But if you learn to love the grind, you increase the possibility of achieving your success exponentially. You must really dig into your craft. You must find and invest in a leadership development curriculum that will help you learn and grow both professionally and personally.
Sales, manufacturing, technology, landscaping, finance: whatever your cause or calling, you must be intentional at becoming the best you can be in your chosen field of work. This could look like:
- Coming in early or staying late to make a committed deadline
- Taking to heart some constructive criticism from your boss and making the necessary changes to get a little better
- Providing an empathetic ear to an employee who is struggling with an elderly parent or a wayward child
It can feel like a grind. It can be coarse. It is probably going to be tedious. It’s definitely going to get a bit messy. But in each one of these scenarios, “loving the grind” is going to make you a better employee, a better supervisor, or a trusted friend. It’s going to make you a better leader in your organization.
Learn to Love the Grind With a Leadership Course from Fort Leadership!
It’s true that success is never a guarantee. But if you invest in a Maxwell Leadership curriculum from Fort Leadership, you increase the possibility of your success not just professionally, but personally as well! We help seasoned leaders grow even more and train new leaders to reach their full potential. Contact us online or call us at (770) 597-9005 to get started today!
There is one thing that I love more than the taste of that first cup of coffee in the morning and that is the taste of success in a life well lived!
