Examinedexistence.com defines grit as:
A noncognitive trait based on someone's ability to persevere despite the presence of many challenges and obstacles to achieve a given goal. It is the trait that tells you to keep chugging at something when everyone else has given up on you. It is a measure of emotional intelligence and well-being. Gritty people tend to stick to their goals despite numerous setbacks and failures. It is basically an attitude—a personal creed that you can conquer anything if you just put your mind and body to it. It is the unwavering purpose and the resilience to stick to that purpose whatever the outcome.
At Ugly Mug Marketing grit is needed on a daily basis. For example:
- A website is down and you can't find any of the website login information. You contact the coder and the client. Still no resolve. You do WHATEVER it takes to get the website back up ASAP.
- A client was opening a new location. We ordered new business cards for them. They received them two days before their opening day. All the cards had incorrect info on them. We didn't find out about the issue until 4 PM. Our designer had already left for the day. We called her at home. She made the changes. We ordered new cards at 7:30 PM. We paid to expedite the order with overnight shipping. Although the mistake wasn't our fault. We should have caught the mistakes on our end. We covered all the cost to not only reprint the cards but to expedite the shipping.
- The client asks us to do a newsletter. We do exactly what they ask us to do. Most people would call this "done". But we know “done” is not remarkable. We go a step further and go beyond just what the client requested and ensure we get the results.
- We're running a Facebook campaign for the client. We've spent hours working on the campaign and everything has been finalized and running for weeks. It's time to “dust our hands” and move on, right? No. Here we have grit. We check those Facebook ads daily. We notice that a few of the ads are not performing to their potential. We turn those off design completely new campaigns for the client.
It's easy to read all of those examples and think, "of course, I would go the extra mile to do whatever it takes." Sure, it's easy to have grit when you don't have a to-do list that's a mile long when you don't have imposing deadlines waiting just ahead, and when you don't have the stress of helping a client increase their sales or they'll have to shut down their business, You see, grit isn't needed when your to-do list is empty. It's needed when your list is a mile long. Grit isn't needed when your calendar is wide open. It's needed when you have meeting after meeting, and yet another client just called with an emergency.
Don't have grit? Aren't willing to do whatever it takes. Don't apply… grit is required to succeed in this position.
