Why Grit Matters More

Ty Cobb Backer 0:00

I want to have a conversation about something that I think is incredibly important.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

We have a kind of a belief system that either we're going to push you up, we're going to push you out.

Ty Cobb Backer 0:14

I don't want to be around five other people that aren't pushing themselves to succeed.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

Success isn't about taking, but giving value first. Compensation follows contribution always. This is true authenticity. It's the true every week. This is our story. We share with you our journey. We share with you our scars. Please welcome your host, Ty Cobb Backer.

Ty Cobb Backer 0:36

Is grit more important than talent? Think about that for a second. Because we've all met somebody who has naturally who was naturally gifted at something. Like maybe they were incredible athletes. Maybe they were a salesperson who could walk into any room and connect with anybody. Some people seem to have seem to have an ability that others have to work incredibly hard to develop. But but here's here's what I've learned. Here's what I've learned over the years. Just because somebody has talent doesn't mean they're going to be successful. And just because somebody isn't naturally gifted doesn't necessarily mean they can't become extraordinary. I've seen people with tremendous potential never come close to reaching it. And I've seen people who who weren't necessarily the most talented walk right past everybody else because they were willing to put in the work. So today I want to talk about talent, discipline, persistence, work ethic, and something I believe that separates people who are interested in success from those who are truly committed to it.

How Far Talent Can Take You

Ty Cobb Backer 2:36

And that's grit. Okay. So the first question How far can talent take someone? Someone without discipline. I think talent, I think talent can take take you pretty far initially. Natural ability can create opportunity. It can get somebody noticed. Okay. It can get somebody hired, promoted, or put into a position that other people may have had to work much harder to reach. Okay. But here's the problem. Eventually, eventually you're gonna run. Eventually you're gonna run into somebody who's just as talented as you are. Okay. That used to be my biggest fear. Somebody that was just as crazy as I was, but twice my size and kick my ass all over the place. Or maybe somebody who's not quite as talented, but who's willing to outwork you. And that's what I really meant. Not kick my butt, but outwork me. And that's where things start changing, I think. You know, think about a salesperson. Let's say we hire two salespeople here at TC Backer. The first person comes in and has an incredible personality. They can talk to anybody, they're naturally charismatic, they make people laugh, they're comfortable in front of homeowners, they've got all the natural ability in the world. Okay, then there's the second person. The second person comes in and maybe they're a little quieter. They're not quite as confident. They stumble over their words occasionally. That'd be me. But that second person shows up early, they study the products, they practice their presentations, they ask questions, they follow up with customers, they listen to feedback, they take notes, they spend time developing themselves. Meanwhile, the first person thinks their personality is enough. They don't practice, they don't follow up consistently, they don't study, they just rely on being a good, being good with people. Now, let me ask you something. Okay, six months down the road, who's going to be the better salesperson? A year down the road, three years down the road. I'm putting my money on the person who's willing to work at their craft because it is a craft. Because here's the thing talent might give you a head start, but discipline determines how far you continue moving. And I think that's something every leader needs to understand when they're hiring and developing

The Salesperson Work Ethic Test

Ty Cobb Backer 5:56

people. We have to stop confusing natural ability with long-term potential. There are they're not always the same thing. Now, let's take this conversation one step further. Okay. Can grit overcome a lack of natural ability? My answer is yes. Not in every situation and not without limits. Okay. There are certain things that that require specific physical ability, knowledge, or skills. But in most areas of business and personal development, I believe grit can take somebody a whole lot further than people realize. Okay. And I'm I feel like I feel like I'm a perfect example of that. I have not always been the most talented in a lot of areas of my life. But I was able to put into work and become better at it, be and hone my skills and hone my craft. Okay. And here's here's why. Most of the skills that make somebody valuable can be developed. Communication can be developed. Leadership can be developed. Sales skills can be developed. Problem solving can be developed. Confidence can be developed. Even discipline can be developed. I mean, let's use this, let's use this podcast as an example. Did I like doing it at first? I'll be honest with you. From day one I didn't, I was terrified. But the cause was greater than my emotions. The cause was greater than my feelings. Okay. And over time, and putting in the reps, I actually had people reaching out to me today and saying to me that you look like a natural. And I'm, and but like go back 357 episodes and you'll see the repetitions put in because I am not a natural, and this is definitely something I'm still trying to develop. Okay. And I'll talk a little bit about that later. Okay. Because discipline, even discipline can can be developed. Okay. But you've got to be willing to put in the work. That's the key. That's the difference. I think sometimes people look at somebody who's successful and assume, they assume that person was just born that way. I was just born with a silver spoon up my butt. Okay. They see somebody standing on stage delivering a great speech. They they see somebody leading a successful company. They see somebody closing the big deals. Okay. And they say, man, that person is just naturally good at that. But what they don't see, okay, what they don't see is everything that happened behind the scenes. Okay. That's what they say about great champions. Great boxers aren't made in the ring. They're made in the gym. Great boxers aren't made in the ring. They're made in the gym. People don't see the mistakes. They don't see the uncomfortable conversations. They don't, they don't see, they don't see the failed attempts. Okay. They don't see the uncomfortable conversations. They don't see the man, the years of repetitions, repetition. Okay. And they definitely don't see the days that the person didn't feel like doing any of it. Okay. You know how many times I didn't feel like doing this podcast because of the embarrassing things that are going on in my life or the horrible, the stressful, the pressure to suit up and show up every single week, even not even just with the podcast, but to suit up and show up and come into work every single day. You know, some of us don't have the benefit of I don't feel well. Or my children don't feel well,

Skills You Can Build Over Time

Ty Cobb Backer 10:00

or whatever the case might be. You know, those of us that are carrying that weight, you know, I think, I don't know, create, have haters and think that from the outside looking in that things came easy. And they're not, and they won't, they won't ever be, especially if we continue to to grow. Through pain comes growth. Right? Anything like we talked about this before, you know, I think the universe is just built that way, right? You can't just wake up one morning and be down 15 pounds. You have to get on the treadmill, you have to eat right, you have to put in the work. And it doesn't happen overnight. None of this happens overnight. I can tell you from my own experience, building a company and becoming a leader have taught me things that I couldn't have learned simply by having some natural abilities. You learn by doing, you learn by making mistakes, you learn by having to solve problems that you never expected to face. That I've never expected to face. And you learn by continuing to show up when when when things get difficult. There's a quote. There's a quote by by Angela. Angela Duckworth. I swear she's an author. She wrote the book Grit that I think fits this conversation perfectly. Okay. Her work emphasizes that talent contributes to skill, but effort is also required to build skill and turn it into achievement. Okay. So talent contributes to skill, but effort is also required to build skill and turn it into achievement. I love that idea. I freaking love it. Because it reminds us that being naturally good at something is only part of the equation. The real question is, what are you willing to do with it? Okay. And for somebody who feels like they weren't born with some extraordinary gift, I want you to understand something. You don't have to be the most talented person in the room to become one of the most valuable people in the room. You have you have to be willing to learn, you have to be coachable, and you have to be willing to keep improving. There's never a moment where you arrive. You have to be willing to keep improving. Okay. Now, here's where I think this conversation gets really interesting. Okay.

Why Talent Often Underachieves

Ty Cobb Backer 13:26

Why do highly talented people sometimes underachieve? And I think I think there's several reasons. I I truly do think that there's there's several reasons. One, one of the biggest is that sometimes talent makes things too too easy early on. Think about that. If something has has always come natural to you, you may never have developed the habits required to work through difficult shit. You've always been able to get by on ability. You you've never really had to push yourself. You you never had to learn how to struggle. And then one day you run into a challenge that talent alone can't solve. And what happens? Some people get frustrated, some people start making excuses, some people blame circumstances, and some people just freaking quit. Why? Why? Because they've never had to develop grit. Now compare that to somebody who had to work for everything. Somebody who's had to practice twice as much. Somebody's somebody who's heard the word no a hundred times. Somebody who's been knocked down and had to figure out how to get back up. That person has been developing something incredibly valuable along the way. And that's resilience. They've learned that setbacks aren't necessarily the end. They've learned that being uncomfortable is part of getting better. They've learned that progress doesn't always happen as quickly as they'd like. And then they've learned that success isn't always about being the best on day one. Sometimes it's about being the person who's still improving on day 1000. And this is where I think ego can become a real problem. Because when somebody believes that naturally gifted, sometimes they stop listening, they stop asking questions, they stop accepting feedback. They stop believing that they already know enough. And let me tell you something. Whether you're a sales manager, a project manager, a business owner, or a CEO. None of us has it figured out. I certainly don't. And I hope I never reach a point where I believe I do. Because I believe willingness to continue learning is one of the greatest. And I'm going to give you the silver bullet right frickin' here. Continue. Not just once, not just twice, not because there's a finish line. But continue learning. Continuing, continue learning is the one, is one of the greatest advantages any person can have. Because this is where grit really starts to separate people. Okay. You know, you know, it's easy to be motivated when everything is going well. It's easy to show up when the phones are ringing. It's easy to stay positive when you're winning. It's easy to believe in yourself when everything seems to be working out. But what happens when it isn't? What happens? What happens when business slows down? What happens when you lose a big project or a big deal? What happens when a customer's unhappy? What happens when you make a decision that that turns out wrong? What happens when you put in the effort and don't get immediate results? That's where grit comes into play. And I've said this before on this podcast. Motivation will get you started, but discipline is what keeps you moving when motivation disappears, my friend.

Discipline When Motivation Disappears

Ty Cobb Backer 18:24

And I think persistence does something that talent alone simply cannot do. It builds experience, it builds confidence through evidence, it teaches you how to adjust, and it gives you the opportunity to learn lessons that you would have completely missed if you had walked away. Think about how many people quit, quit something right before they they could have started seeing the results. No, I'm not saying you should blindly continue doing something that that clearly isn't working. There's a difference between being persistent and being stubborn. Okay. We've talked about that on the show before. Sometimes grit means changing your approach. A couple weeks ago, I think we talked about that. Sometimes it means asking for help. Sometimes it means admitting we were wrong. Sometimes it means learning a completely different skill. But what it doesn't mean is giving up on your personal growth just because something got difficult. You can change the strategy without abandoning the mission. And that's that's an important distinction, I think, especially for us. Okay. Because when you're leading a team, there are people depending on you. If you're leading a household, if you're leading a department, it people are depending on you. Okay. Your decisions affect other people's lives. Okay. And they need to know that when things get challenging, you're not simply going to throw your hands up and walk away. They need somebody who's willing to figure shit out. Somebody who's willing to take responsibility. Someone who's willing to learn and adjust. And somebody who's willing to keep showing up. That, my friend, is grit. That's the definition, in my opinion, of grit. Not pretending that things aren't difficult, not acting like you never get discouraged, not making the decision to hit continue moving anyway. Now, I want to bring this back to something personal. Okay, because when I look back at my own journey, I can tell, I can tell you that some of the most valuable lessons I've learned didn't come from success. They came from struggle. They came from making mistakes. They came from having uncomfortable conversations. They came from making decisions when I didn't have all the answers. And they came from realizing that just because I was good at something didn't mean I was automatically good at leading other people to do it. That's a completely different set of skills. Okay. When you're growing a business or a department or a team or a

Leadership Means Developing People

Ty Cobb Backer 21:44

family, you eventually realize that your personal ability can only take your family, your organization, your department so far. You have to learn how to build people. You have to learn how to trust people. You have to learn how to delegate. You have to learn how to develop leaders. And sometimes you have to learn how to get out of your own way. Those aren't lessons that natural, natural talent automatically teaches you. Those are lessons that come through experience, humility, and freaking effort. One thing that has become incredibly important to me is that the idea that our job as leaders isn't simply to identify talented people. It is to identify people who are willing to grow. Think about the people who have made the biggest impact on our organization. Were they always the most naturally talented people? Or were they the people who showed up every day, took ownership, learned from their mistakes, and continued to get better? I believe we need both talent and grit. But if I'm building a team and I have, I have to choose between somebody who's naturally gifted, but unwilling to improve, and somebody who somebody who is less experienced but hungry, okay, hungry to learn. I'm gonna, I'm gonna bet. I'm gonna go with I'm gonna go with the person who's hungry every single time. And here's another thing. As leaders, we have to create an environment where effort and improvement actually matters. Okay. It's not enough to tell people to work harder. We have to give them the tools, the training, the coaching, the opportunities to get better. We have to recognize progress. We have to celebrate the people who take initiative. We have to create a culture where asking questions isn't viewed as a weakness and where making an honest mistake becomes an opportunity to learn. Not just an opportunity to criticize, but because grit is powerful, but grit combined with good leadership, proper training in the right environment, that's when people can really start reaching their potential. And when you develop people, you strengthen the entire freaking organization. There's one more thing I I want to talk about before we get to into our audience poll. Love these polls because I think I think there's a a missed misconception

Intentional Effort Beats Long Hours

Ty Cobb Backer 24:28

about grit that we need to address here. Okay. Some people think grit simply means working longer hours, never taking a day off, never slowing down, just putting your head down and pushing harder and harder. But I don't believe that's the complete picture. Okay. And I'm not saying that there isn't a time and a place. You can work incredibly hard at the wrong things. That's the difference. Okay. You can be busy all day and accomplish very little. You can burn yourself out if you never take the time to evaluate what it is that you're actually doing. What am I getting done? What am I completing? What have I accomplished? To me, grit isn't just about effort. It's about intentional effort. It's about having a purpose. It's about having the discipline to do the things that matter. It's about being willing to change when something isn't working. And it's about, it's about committing to continuous improvement. Think about a salesperson who knocks on a knocks on a hundred doors, but never changes their approach. Now, compare that person to somebody who knocks on 50 doors, studies their conversations, listens to coaching, improves their presentation, and follows up consistently. See the difference? Both are hard work. Knocking 100 doors and not changing shit, that's a lot of work. Or knocking 50 doors, studying their craft, listening to coaching, improving their presentation, and following up consistently. That actually sounds like more work, but with intentionality. Who's actually developing? You see, working harder isn't always the answer. Sometimes we need to work smarter. I used to hate that. Work smarter, not harder. How about work hard and smart? Sometimes we need to slow down and long enough to understand what's keeping us from progressing. And sometimes the grittiest thing you can do is put your ego aside and ask somebody for help so you can get better. That's not weakness, my man. That's freaking maturity. And that's what separates people who simply put in the hours from the people who actually develop mastery.

Poll Talent Or Grit Or Discipline

Ty Cobb Backer 26:55

Let's dive into the poll. And I really want to hear your thoughts on this one. Okay. Which matters more long term? Which matters more long term? A, talent, B grit, C, discipline, or D, opportunity. All four of these are interesting choices. Talent can give you a head start. Opportunity can open a door that you may not have been able to open on your own. Discipline helps you build consistent habits, and grit helps you continue pursuing something meaningful when shit gets hard. If I'm choosing one, what do you think I'm going with? I'm going with grit. But I think discipline and grit go hand in hand because to me, grit is the commitment to keep pursuing something, and discipline is how you demonstrate that commitment every single day. An opportunity, well, opportunity matters too. We can't pretend everybody starts in the same place or has access to the same resources. But when an opportunity does show up, you've got to be prepared to do something with it. So drop your answers in the comments. Talent, grit, discipline, or opportunity. And tell me, tell me why you picked that, James. Tell me why you chose number three. I'd love to hear what everybody thinks. All

Hiring For Coachability And Character

Ty Cobb Backer 28:22

right. So before we wrap up, I want to leave my fellow leaders with something to think about. When you are interviewing somebody, promoting somebody, or deciding who deserves an opportunity, what are you really looking for? Are you simply looking for the most impressive resume, the most experienced person, the person who's naturally the best at their job? Or are you looking beyond that? Maybe you're looking for character, work ethic, coachability, accountability, the willingness to take constructive criticism, the desire to improve. Because I've come to believe that one of the biggest responsibilities we have as leaders is recognizing potential that somebody else might overlook. Sometimes the person who becomes your best team member isn't the one who walks through the door knowing everything. Sometimes it's the one who walks through the door willing to learn everything. And I'm sure we've seen both. And I want to challenge, I want to challenge the team members listening too. Don't let the fact that somebody else is further ahead discourage you. Don't get caught up in comparing your beginning to somebody else's middle. Ask yourself, am I better than I was six months ago? Am I learning? Am I becoming more valuable? Am I keeping the commitments I make to myself and to others? Am I willing to be coached? And when I make a mistake, do I make excuses or do I take ownership and improve? Because you may not be able to control how much natural talent you were born with, but you certainly can control every opportunity that comes your way. You can take responsibility for your habits. You can take responsibility for your attitude. You can take responsibility for how you respond to setbacks. You can make the decision to keep growing. That's something I want everyone listening to remember. You don't have to be the best today, but you do have to be willing to become better tomorrow. Here's a question I want to leave everybody with today. Would you rather build around the most talented person or the person who refuses to stop improving? Really think about that. Would you rather build around the most talented person or the person who refuses to stop improving? Because the most talented person might give you the best immediate results, but the person who's committed to getting better might give you something even more valuable over the long run. Consistency, growth, reliability, and leadership. And a standard that challenges everybody around them to improve. Now, imagine finding someone who has both talent and grit, somebody who's naturally gifted, but also humble enough to keep learning. Somebody who's highly capable, but never believes they've arrived. That's a powerful combination. And that's the kind of person I think every organization should be trying to develop. Not just hire, but develop. Because the truth is, talent may be what gets somebody noticed, but character, discipline, persistence, and the willingness to grow are what help build a lasting legacy. And at the end of the day, isn't that what all we isn't that what we were all really trying to do? Not just become successful, but become better people, better teammates, better leaders, spouses, parents, and better examples for the people coming behind

The Weekly Challenge And Closing

Ty Cobb Backer 32:16

us. So here's my challenge for everybody listening this week. Stop asking yourself whether you're talented enough. Start asking yourself whether you're committed enough to keep getting better. Identify one area of your life where you've been relying on your natural ability, your past experience, or simply doing things the way you've always done them. And make a commitment to improve that area. Maybe it's your communication, leadership, your follow-up. Maybe it's your relationships, whatever it is, it doesn't matter. Don't just say you're going to get better. Take action, make a plan, practice, ask for feedback, and then do it again tomorrow. Because greatness isn't built through one extraordinary day, it is built through consistent effort over time. And I'll give you, I'll leave you with this. Talent might determine where you start, but grit, discipline, and the willingness to learn have a lot to say about where you finish. And remember, we don't have to become better. We get to.