Grit is the ability to operate at a high level for a long period of time, especially through adversity. For a leader, it is what people look to when times get toughest. It comes from the intersection of purpose and passion, and you build it by doing hard things on purpose before life forces them on you.
- Grit is sustained effort over time. Life is an endurance race.
- It grows where purpose meets passion. Purpose is the logs and passion is the match.
- Build it in small daily doses, like a cold shower, before you need it.
- Prepare for what's difficult when it's easy.
What is grit?
My co-host Arturo Gomez has led teams for 25 years. He defines grit as the ability to operate at a sustained level for a long period of time. Leadership demands an immense amount of intensity and endurance, and grit is what supplies it.
When I think about grit, I think about adversity, difficult times and getting comfortable being uncomfortable. Grit is ugly. You will rarely wake up excited to work on it. Champions are made from it all the same, along with the mental toughness and resilience we admire most in the best people in the world.
Why is grit important for leaders?
The real question is how good you are when times are toughest. Some people give up. Others keep pushing forward, and that is the separator.
Life is an endurance race, and so is business. Every success story has someone behind the curtain with a tremendous amount of grit moving the purpose forward.
I am someone that is made in difficult times. That is where I'm going to shine.
Rob Cressy, Episode 5
That shine helps the people around you. When you work on your own grit, you have more to give your team when the hard moment arrives. Wait until you need it, and it can be too late.
Where does grit come from?
Arturo picked up the idea from Angela Duckworth's book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, which breaks down the science. His takeaway: grit is the intersection of purpose and passion. As he relays it, Duckworth shows grit is a better indicator of long-term success than intelligence.
Purpose is the wood. Passion is the match.
Arturo uses that campfire picture. The match sparks the flame, and purpose keeps it burning.
- Passion You have many of them. They are the things you love, study and work hard at.
- Purpose You have one. It is forever, unwavering, the reason you were put here.
Your purpose often sits close to your passions. Arturo spent 35 to 40 years working his out: to empower and bring happiness to the people around him. Every business he owned was built on delivering experiences, because a smile is his electric charge.
How do you build grit as a leader?
- Write down your purpose. List your passions, then work toward a single personal mission statement. It can take hours, days or months.
- Read it every morning. Mine is the first thing I read: my purpose in life is to build the world in my image, and by doing so I am a positive force for good that leads others to what's possible.
- Take a micro dose of courage. Turn your shower to cold. I learned this from Tony Robbins. I spin around three times and yell "Courage!" Every cold shower is a deposit in your courage bank for the next big presentation.
- Seek out one uncomfortable thing a week. It can be anything. When you notice discomfort, treat it as a signal to move toward it.
- Take on a bigger challenge. Andy Frisella's 75 Hard was one of the greatest things I've ever done. His Live Hard program later had me take a five-minute freezing cold shower for 30 straight days. I made a Bob Marley playlist just to get through it.
Why should you prepare for hard times when things are easy?
One of my due north quotes is to do what's difficult when it's easy. Build the reps while the stakes are low.
Arturo adds that physical stamina has to be built. You grow scar tissue over time. If you ever have an easy day, be wary of it. Life was never meant to be easy, and you can still be happy.
Can you have grit without loving what you do?
Sometimes. You can push through a chore without passion and just get it done. I loved zero percent of my hardest physical challenges. The stories of true grit come from people doing something that feels purposeful, and that purpose keeps them on course no matter what comes. It is the same reason a strong why carries a leader so far.
What books teach grit?
Seeing others who have done it tells you that you can too. Start with Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins, The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday, Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, Living with a SEAL by Jesse Itzler, Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Rock Bottom to Rock Star by Ryan Blair. Add Duckworth's Grit for the science.
How does grit help you lead in the AI era?
Learning AI as a leader means being a beginner again, in front of your team. That is getting comfortable being uncomfortable. Go first, and give yourself about 20 hours of hands-on practice to get going. The leaders who push through the awkward early reps are the ones their teams follow. Start with AI for leaders, and pair it with a growth mindset.
Do this today
- Do one uncomfortable thing. Pick something this week that makes you a little uncomfortable, physical or not, and do it.
- Write your passions down. Then start drafting the one sentence that could become your purpose.
Listen to the episode
Grit
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Questions people ask
What is the definition of grit?
Grit is the ability to operate at a sustained level for a long period of time, especially through adversity and difficult times.
Who wrote the book Grit?
Angela Duckworth wrote Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. Arturo Gomez recommends it for the science behind grit.
Is grit more important than talent?
Arturo Gomez points to Angela Duckworth's finding that grit is a better indicator of long-term success than intelligence. You can have an insane amount of grit without being the smartest person in the room.
How do you build grit every day?
Read your purpose each morning, take a cold shower for a micro dose of courage, and seek out one uncomfortable thing each week.
Full transcript
Episode 5: Grit
Welcome to Leadership DNA, a podcast for those who aspire to be a better leader. Alongside Arturo Gomez, I'm Rob Cressy. Today's topic and oh am I excited for this one? Grit. Arturo, what is grit? Grit is, you know, the way that I've interpreted it and I think others have as well, it really is the ability to operate at a sustained level for a long period of time, right? And so how does that actually happen? And where do people find these depths of motivation to be able to do these things?
And so, you know, I think we're going to dive into it a little bit deeper, but you know, for me it's always been, and I didn't really understand the concept, but it really has always been that intersection of purpose and passion. But, you know, it's an essential component today in any discussion that you're having in leadership, because leadership is not for the faint of heart. It requires an immense amount of intensity and endurance to be able to be a leader that people are going to strive to be, or that people are going to follow. And when I think about grit, I think about adversity and difficult times and getting comfortable being uncomfortable.
So let's get to why this is important. And you know why this is important? Because how good are you when the times are the toughest? Are you going to give up or are you someone who's going to keep pushing forward? Because these are the real separators. And guess what? Grit, it's not sexy. It's ugly. No one wakes up in the morning is like, Oh, I cannot wait to work on my grit today. This is going to be so much fun. But guess what? Guess where champions are made of? Champions are made from grit, among other things. You hear mental toughness, these things that are about the resilience, the things that we actually admire the most about the best people in the world. So Arturo, why is grit so important?
You know, because everything, I mean, listen, life is an endurance race. It is. And everything that we do in corporate or entrepreneurial world is the same. There is, there are no layups. Okay. And there's not, there's not going to be a seasoned entrepreneur that's ever going to tell you that there is. And so, you know, every leader, every success story that we can talk about has somebody behind the curtain that had a tremendous amount of grit to actually move the purpose forward. And so it's, it's critical. It's critical. You, you have to be able to, for, to withstand and endure all the things that are going to come down the path.
And, and, and, you know, and even through life, I actually really even want to emphasize that we can talk about corporate America and we can talk about entrepreneurship until we're blue in the face, but it's really important actually for people to understand the concept of actually using this just in life because life. I don't believe, I don't believe was ever intended to be easy.
I agree. And one quote that really is a due north for me is do what's difficult when it's easy. And you're like, why in the world would you want to do that, Rob? And unfortunately, given the current circumstances of where we are right now in the world, there is a lot of pain out there and there is a lot of adversity and there's a lot of difficult times right now.
And for me, I like to say that I am someone that is made in difficult times. That is where I'm going to shine because that's where my leadership is going to be the best. And by me leading myself and working on that grit, it allows me to shine and that shine is going to be able to go and help others. And it's something that sometimes if you don't work on it or you're not intentional about it's almost too late.
And it's like, what happens when you get put into a situation in which you need grit? And that's, what's really going to separate those who do from those who don't. Right. And it's, you know, people ask questions, it's like, where does, you know, where does grit come from? You know, chances are people, if you're, if you're doing something that you don't love, you're not going to have the sustained grit.
Some people can do it. You know, obviously I think when, you know, when you talk about some of the physical challenges and things that you've pushed yourself to, you know, I can't imagine that you love it. You know, maybe you do, maybe you love abusing yourself like that. Zero percent. You know, so it's, you know, so there is this ability to move through life, move through a chore, move through anything without having an insane amount of passion or adoration towards it and just getting it done.
But I think that when you look at the stories of true grit and where those, where that was actually used to win or to, you know, create something that was, you know, great is where people are doing something that feels purposeful. And that purpose is really driving them to stay on course, no matter, you know, no matter what comes their way.
And so, you know, grit comes from the idea that you have this purpose. It aligns with passion. And so that's a really an important concept. It's a really important concept. And I actually force in, you know, in my coaching sessions with, with individuals, I always tell them before we even get started, I ask them to tell me what their purpose is. And, um, I think that that's a insanely difficult question to even answer. It's, it really is identifying the reason why you exist.
And so, uh, I don't know a lot of people that can actually spit that off just immediately because I think it really is, uh, a life lived to determine what that is. You know, it's, it's, it's rare that somebody at an incredibly young age would know what that, what your purpose in life is. Um, but it, but it happens, it exists.
You know, um, I think from a very young age, I actually had some understanding that there was something that I was intended that I was put here to do. Okay. And so I spent literally, I would say 35, 40 years of my life really trying to understand what that, what that was. And so, you know, I think it's, I think it takes time.
I think it really is a requirement for people to take that pause to really dive deep. And this is separate from passion. I, we all have passions. We have multiple passions, things we love. Um, purpose is forever. It is the thing that is unwavering. It is the thing that we are again, uh, intended to do and why we were put here on this earth. So it's a very deep question.
And so I forced people to actually try to answer that question. And we work through these things. And a lot of times you can find purpose surrounding passion. Passion. You can maybe take some backward steps and track it down. And through these passions, because we all gravitate to things that we love. Right. And we've all found things that we're actually really good at because we have this insane love for them. And so we study it, we work hard at it.
And so oftentimes you can find the purpose of your life is somewhere very close by. And I love this because this is a perfect segue to how you want to do it or how you want to work on it. Because guess what is part of my morning boot sequence to make me the person who I need to be on a daily basis. The first thing that I read is my purpose. It says, my purpose in life is to build the world in my image.
And by doing so, I am a positive force for good that leads others to what's possible. And for me, I always want to live on fire and I'm a creator and I love doing stuff. So I just want to build as much as I can. But in doing so, I want to show others what is possible to lead them to say, listen, if Rob can do this, whether it's what Rob is building or the various things that I'm doing all the way down to this podcast right there. If he can do this, well, guess what? So can I, because here's the thing. Like everybody else, I started at zero. I wasn't just given all of this. When I left my job, I was at zero. I had no relationships. No one knew who I was.
I was at zero in the industry. And it is from that every morning, it just boom, I get that intention and that awareness going. So let's talk about how else you want to do it and how to prepare for what's difficult when it's easy. And I've got a lot of different things that I can really share about this. But I'm going to give one that I've learned that's going to be uncomfortable for most people, but it works extremely well.
And that is cold showers or cold water therapy. So Arturo, we would probably say that we would all like to have a little bit more courage in our lives, correct? Of course. Right. But here's the thing. How in the world do you work on courage? Like I'm not just going to sit there at a four-way intersection and wait for an old lady to cross the street and jump in front of them like, oh, I was courageous today. It's just not realistic. But I want to consciously work on the grit.
And this is something that I learned from Tony Robbins. But one thing that you can do on a daily basis that I've done for years is when you get into the shower, turn that shower to cold. And what I do is I spin around three times and I yell, courage! And you know why I do that? Because 100% of the time when you turn that water onto freezing cold in the shower, it sucks. And you know what it really ends up becoming?
A micro dose of courage for you. So maybe when you need to do a presentation for work and you need to get in front of people and you're feeling all nervous, but guess what? You're making these little deposits in your micro courage bank. And I actually took that a step further as part of the Live Hard program that I did. One of the things was taking a five-minute cold shower for 30 straight days. And when I mean cold, I mean freezing freaking cold.
So if you want to work on your grit, I had to create an intentional boot sequence for how in the world I was going to take a five-minute cold shower. Because guess what? The second I got into that bathroom, I knew the monster that was about to lay in front of me. So I had to consciously create a playlist. No joke. I created a playlist of Bob Marley and other things.
So I would be dancing and laughing in the shower almost in a sadistic Joker-like way because it was so absurd and so cold. But guess what? It was one of the greatest things ever for me. And oh, by the way, there are actual health benefits to it, which is nice if you care about that. But I was doing it for the grit side of things. Yeah. I mean, I think you – so there's a couple paths, right? There's a couple ways to exercise that.
Again, so, you know, I realized that I actually didn't, you know, state what I feel my purpose is. And so, you know, it's really to bring – to empower and bring happiness to those around me is really what I've found. And I really came to this realization. It was about a year ago. It was last June. But I started realizing that everything that I've done, at least in my adult life, and even for the most part through my childhood, was finding insane happiness in seeing other people happy. And so, you know, when I started – when you dive into the passions that you have and the career that you may have, and you find – you know, I found that, you know, every business that I currently own is derived off of experience. And so when you boil down experience, why do I get these highs off delivering experiences? Because I love seeing people happy.
I love seeing – for me, a smile is – that is my electric charge. And so, you know, there's things that you can do. And you talk about some of the physical – really the physical challenges of creating this endurance. And I think the other thing is, you know, again, for me, a big part of this is soul searching. And it's really – I think everybody right now, if they actually sat down and started mapping out the things that they've done and the paths that they've taken throughout their life, whether it's a career or the decisions that they've made and where they live and who they married and, you know, all sorts of things, that you can find the – you can identify that purpose. And so, to me, it's – you know, I read something that actually fundamentally makes a lot of sense.
And so, in life, if we are – imagine trying to build a campfire where purpose is the logs, the wood that goes into the fire, and where a match is passion. And so, match – the match sparks the flame with purpose being this underlying, you know, foundation to that energy. And so, yeah, I think it's extremely important to find the – chase the passions, understand the purpose. But also, you know, to the point that you were making, I mean, it is – it does require a level of physical stamina that isn't something that people are just wake up and have. You have to build that scar tissue and understand that there is no easy day. And if you ever experience an easy day, you should be wary of it. It's – life was never intended to be easy. But we can be happy. We can be happy. 100%. 100%. And I've got some great book recommendations.
And great – there's so many of them. But read these books. Number one, Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins. When you read that book, when you finish reading it, you're going to want to run through a freaking brick wall. Another one, Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday, which really talks about, all right, there's a wall in front of you. A lot of people are going to be like, I can't get over that wall. Well, really, you have to get over it, under it, around it. However it can be, the obstacle becomes the way.
It's one of my favorite books ever. It's based on stoic philosophy. You've got Shoe Dog, the story of Phil Knight and Nike. For anyone who has read that or knows the story, it's just incredible. We have Living with a Seal by Jesse Itzler, which is ironically enough about when he lived with David Goggins. And if you read Can't Hurt Me first and then you read Living with a Seal second, you'll be like, oh my God. The next one, Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink.
This is on my absolute must-read book list. Jocko is the most badass of badass Navy Seals ever. He's a good follow on social media. He is grit personified. And then last one, Rock Bottom to Rockstar by Ryan Blair. And it's a great example of his story of how he was at the bottom and then how he rose back up to the top. And I think when you want to build grit or learn about it, seeing others who have done it is great inspiration for you to say, why do I want to do this?
Because if others can do it, so can I. Yeah. You know what? There's actually another – those are great books. There's another book that I want to recommend that actually is called Grit. It's Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth. It really just boils down – it breaks down the science. And so it's not about a particular story or examples of how grit actually played into success.
It actually – she really dives into the science behind it. And it's an amazing book. And this is where I really kind of picked up on that passion or that grit is the intersection of purpose and passion. And, you know, in the book she even says that grit is a better indicator for long-term success than intelligence. And so can you have an insane amount of grit without being scholastically the smartest person in the room? For sure. For sure. And she goes on to explain why. And so I think it's a great book for anybody that's really trying to understand the science behind it and understand maybe a little bit better idea of how to exercise the idea of finding purpose and better understanding your passions.
So now let's get to the takeaways and action items. And I've actually got two. One, if you want to work on grit, then I highly recommend checking out Andy Frisella's 75 Hard Mental Toughness Program. You can check it out, 75hard.com. I did it. It was one of the greatest things I've ever done in my life. And in 75 days, you'll become the best version of yourself and you will learn grit and you will earn your confidence. And then number two, remember, get comfortable being uncomfortable. I want you to always have that in your mind. If you want to work on grit, get comfortable being uncomfortable. And go and seek out one thing this week that makes you a little bit uncomfortable. It doesn't have to be physical. It can be anything.
So you want to start looking for those moments in your life where you're like, wow, I'm a little bit uncomfortable. That should become a red flag to say, hey, wait a second. What if I move forward and do this and start working on my grit? Arturo, what about you? Action item or takeaway? Yeah, this is more of an action item. I would tell people that, one, if you already have a true understanding of what your purpose is. And again, the depth of that question is immense.
It's you are basically, this is what would be written on your headstone, right? That you were put here to do this. And so hopefully you get a chance in your lifetime to actually do what you were meant to be doing. And so I think that a lot of people find challenges in life to become happy or to find the career that they love or to just get on track to having a happy and fulfilled life because they never answer that question.
I think the exercise is write down your passions, okay? Understand what those are. And it can be, there's a variety of things. It's okay. We don't need that. We don't have one passion. We have many passions. And that's a beautiful thing about life. But there really should only be one purpose. And so I would tell people to really try to devise a personal mantra, a mission statement, a purpose, you know? And try to work that out.
And that takes hours. It could take days. It could take months. It could take, you know, however long it takes. It's an exercise that I think is a wonderful thing because it's the gut check that you need to do before you embark on anything. And, you know, there's argue, this could have arguably been discussed in episode one in terms of working on yourself and really developing yourself.
It has to, you have to answer certain questions about who you are in order to go to the next stage. And so my ask would be for people to try to do that, to really kind of lay this stuff down. Write it down. And, oh, is there so much goodness in this episode. And we really want to hear from you about this. Did anything we say resonate with you? Or did you take action? If so, send us your purpose.
Let us know how this positively affected your life. And if you enjoyed this episode, you know what? What would really help us to grow this community and to help others? Go on iTunes and give us a rating and review. Subscribe and let us know what you think about the show. Give us your candid feedback because it is the number one thing that can help us grow.
And it's just a small thing that you can do to practice some gratitude for Arturo and myself to help us grow this so that we can spread more happiness and grit and love to others.
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