It’s Q4. The race is not quite over yet. There are still calls to be made – and yes – even proposals to be written.
Why do you do it?
I suspect it is because you are blessed with “grit”.
What is grit?
Grit is the place where passion meets perseverance. To no small degree, it often is the only difference between people that succeed and fail. Angela Duckworth author of “GRIT – THE Power of Passion and Perseverance writes the following to describe grit.
“Grit is passion and perseverance for long-term goals. One way to think about grit is to consider what grit isn’t. Grit isn’t talent. Grit isn’t luck. Grit isn’t how intensely, for the moment, you want something.
Instead, grit is about having what some researchers call an ”ultimate concern” – a goal you care about so much that it organizes and gives meaning to almost everything you do. And grit is holding steadfast to that goal. Even when you fall down. Even when you screw up. Even when progress toward that goal is halting or slow.
Talent and luck matter to success. But talent and luck are no guarantee of grit. And in the very long run, I think grit may matter at least as much, if not more.”
What does this have to do with GovCon?
In order to have true success in our world, you must have the ability to hold steadfast to winning. You must be able to commit to following the processes that those who are where you want to be followed to get there.
And most importantly – you need to remember that the GovCon success stories you read about rarely happened overnight. Sure, the folks you read about have skill, talent, and knowledge. What you rarely read about though is the failures, missteps and false starts that happened before the success. And I would bet money that it was pure grit that kept them going when success seemed very far away.
So stay focused on the goal and keep going. And remember a whole new GovCon year with new and unimagined opportunities is very close!
Hat Tip.
Hat tip to my friend and colleague Lyn Christian of Soul Salt who gave me the inspiration for this post. Learn more about her work here. We are teaming up to create some lessons specifically for entrepreneurs and senior leaders in the GovCon space.