“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful individuals with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” –Ray Kroc
These words are the essence of grinding it out. But let’s rewind for a moment.
Years ago, a wellness center opened right where ours is today. The owners went all in on a dream: “If you build it, they will come.” Spoiler alert: The customers didn’t show up, and the center closed within a year.
Decades earlier, I had friends, Deirdre and Hans, with a similar idea—a bodywork center, spacious, welcoming, and… empty. My friends failed in a time when there was no SEO and social media. It was fliers and newspaper ads and networking that carried the day. But they didn’t know how to drum up business. Instead, they sat there, waiting for the doors to magically swing open with customers. Within a year, their dream shut its doors too.
The lesson to me? Grinding it out isn’t about hoping or waiting for your dream to come true. It’s about doggedly inching towards a goal that you can’t always see in the distance.
Grind, Don’t Just Spin Your Wheels
Ray Kroc, the brains behind McDonald’s, wrote a book called Grinding It Out. Now, before you roll your eyes, let me be clear—I’m no fan of McDonald’s. Their impact on health, the environment, and animal welfare? Not great. But their business success? You can’t argue with it.
Kroc emphasized working lean. He also said: “You must perfect every fundamental of your business if you expect it to perform well.”
Perfecting every fundamental of your business and grinding it out are inextricably linked. If you’re not grinding it out in every fundamental of your business, you’re not learning how to grow your business. And if you don’t learn every fundamental (or hire people who are experts in the fundamentals that you need help with), you’ll go belly up, like my friends.
By the way, I had my own belly-up experience. Years ago, Lisa and I decided to open up a third location inside a physical therapy office that was farther away from us than our other offices. The massage therapist, who was working for us at the time, was going to be the manager of that location. It wasn’t a good fit from the get-go, but I convinced myself that things would work out.
Six months in, I was trying to manage the business while doing most of the massage in the business. At one point, I was talking to a physical therapy patient (a corporate marketer, too) who said one thing that has stuck with me. He said: If you’re inside the massage room, you can’t grow your business.
He was right. After a year running myself to death, Lisa and I closed the office. It hurt, but it was the smartest decision Lisa and I have made so far in our business journey. We cut our losses quickly so that we could live to grind it out somewhere else with more potential.
Perfect the Fundamentals
If you think you’re grinding it out but are not seeing success, go back and examine the fundamentals. In retrospect, for me, this was what was happening when I thought I was grinding it out.
- I did a great massage–but I didn’t know how to market besides doing a great massage.
- I could schedule people–but I didn’t know how to run efficient operations.
- I could build trust with clients–but I had no clue how to build business relationships.
- I could work hard in the business–but I only had rudimentary skills for hiring and managing people.
It took mentors, coaches, and a lot of bartering to fill those gaps. For example, massages paid for my first website decades ago. And now, SCORE—a government-funded program that connects business owners with mentors for free–has taken me to the next level with our massage and wellness center.
The fundamentals are your foundation. If you don’t learn them—or hire someone who has the expertise where you’re lacking—you’re not grinding; you’re spinning. And spinning can go on for a long, long painful time. Trust me on that.
Grinding It Out Takes Time
Ray Kroc famously said: “I was an overnight success all right, but thirty years is a long, long night.”
We all want to have a business that is an overnight success story–but that’s not how it works usually. So, when I’m down sometimes I write things like Live in Philly, Philly to lift me up. But nowadays, what keeps me on track more often is looking back after a month of grinding and seeing the progress we made. If you are not experiencing grinding-it-out success, ask yourself this:
- Am I grinding it out, or am I spinning my wheels?
- If I’m spinning, do I need a mentor, coach, or accountability partner?
- Am I perfecting the fundamentals, or avoiding them?
By no means am I asking you to let go of your dream just because it’s hard. I’m just saying don’t waste years on a dream thinking you’re grinding it out when you’re actually spinning in place because you haven’t become competent with the fundamentals.
So: Head down. Glance up. Making progress? Good. Head down. Grind.
