Monday Motivation: Grit

Happy Monday, Cadre family. I'm sorry. I'm out of the vehicle today. You know, just kind of a little fast and furious day. It is what it is. My name is Luke Wendtlandt, your chief motivational officer here and one of the original founders here of cadres. I just wanted to touch base with you about the most critical aspect. What I believe about life is it's about grit and perseverance. You know, a lot of individuals view life as these, like, short term sprints, like your short term sprint, short term sprint to the next sprint.

And fundamentally, I just view it completely different. I view life as this long, long, long marathon, whether it's in marriage, friendships, the work we do, the careers we chose, how to develop and be a better parent, how to grow a more successful business. These are life cycles of their own. And in order to build these and build these successfully over a duration of time, you have to have grit. So what. What actually is grit? Grit is when perseverance and attitude join forward over a duration of time.

I have to give you one example. So when I was at starting an organization seven, eight years ago, in order to start an organization like this, you have to present to your local city council, your chapters, the neighborhood council. You have to gain votes in order to move forward on something like this, right? So I was going forward going through this conversation, and they all voted no, right? So they. They voted no. So this, the business that, you know, we just currently sold and all the other things, like, it never should have happened seven.

Seven years ago, it was all voted down of no. And I remember the three of us on a text message. The original founders were on a text message together. And the message that came across the table was, everybody has a plan until you get punched in the face. Obviously, the old Mike Tyson quote, like, now, it was not an option to spend all that money on diligence and quit. It wasn't an option to have already put down a down payment on this property in this building. Like, that wasn't an option. You know, the option was finding solutions to move forward.

Right? So, you know, my kids today, if I. If I have all four of them sitting around a table and I ask them to do the exact same thing for a time period that I would never give them an answer for, like, hey, guys, all four of you are going to read around this table until I tell you to stop. I guarantee you one of them, at first five to seven minutes, is going to say, this is terrible. When can I stop? I guarantee the other one might pipe in, like, 20 minutes later and may say, I can't. When's this over, dad?

You know that about the hour mark, and I have one. I have one that will never ask. I guarantee it. I wish she will never ask. She'll just keep going and going and going. And she has. She has so much grit. So I believe a little bit is innate, internal. And I think the other part, though, this is the best part about grit, is it can actually be earned, it can be achieved. It can be developed. It can be built. It can be worked hard through to get together. So my job on that one right now, as a parent of that one individual that quits within six to eight minutes is to get them to never do that again and join the 1 hour daughter, you know, two hour daughter.

That's not going to ask that. So how do I do it? I put those individuals in uncomfortable positions. You have to know, you know, as children, as family, that we're not gonna quit like that. That's not an option. You know, like, you know, that's. That's not on the table. You know, some things are. Some things are on the table. I can be mad. I can be frustrated. I could be upset. I could be angry. I could be disappointed. I could be all those things. But quitting? No. No, that's not something we do, right?

And so, you know, I'll give you another example. When we started Cadre, you know, cadres, you know, went through a variety of different, you know, ups and downs as we, you know, got get here today. But, you know, the vessel has been the same. The vessel's been the same. Where we're going is the same. You know, the vision that you have is the same. That that's never going to alter, and it's never going to stop, and it just. It just doesn't quit. Some individuals may come on and off the boats, and that's fine, and that's okay.

And, you know, you might have other things that. That happen at the company and at the organization. That's fine. But do you, like me personally, have any percentage chance that you'd actually stop doing this? You know, and I think people laugh when I say this, but it's true. You know, I. The only way I will stop is if I'm dead, and if I'm dead, then it's. Then I. Then I will quit. So you can talk about grit and perseverance a lot, you know, being gritty and all this other stuff, but, like, do you actually mean it?

Like, do you. Do you actually mean it? Like, how do you show up when the times get really, really hard? What does that look like for you? Is quitting on the table? Is that. Is. That's something that, you know, even crosses your mind? I think some of the most beautiful things in this world, you know, is going to a nursing home and seeing a 50, 60 year couple that's been together for, you know, 50, 60 years since they've been teenage sweet sweethearts and everything. And seeing them together still as a couple, married, that's gritty.

Those individuals that have been together through, I'm sure, thick and thin through all the things. And then now all you see is, you know, two individuals dancing to, you know, islands in the stream, you know, hence the David Beckham and Victoria Beckham, you know, seeing that dance. Right. Because that's what you see, but you don't see all the struggles that people do have. And that's the actual dream. The dream is the actual struggle, the process, the struggle of it. That. That's. That's the best part in the world.

It doesn't get any better than that of going through all of the mud to get to your goals and dreams. You want to see the character of somebody, whoever that somebody is. Go check them out when things are going sideways, go check them out when their knees are up to their mud. That's when you see the real testament of individuals and humans. So with that being said, I ask you, do you have grit? Do you persevere? What does it look like for you when things aren't going your way? Believe you're going to tell a lot about yourself in that direction.

Thanks.