15 May Two Cent Tuesday: 990 vs. 1000: I Once Heard Most People Quit When…
I don’t know if I would call myself a gym rat, but six or seven days a week you will find me at the gym for about 90 minutes throwing the weights around and ending with a 25-30 minute HIIT routine. This is good for my soul.
At the Anytime Fitness I am a member of, many of us members were given a Garmin heart rate monitor that wraps around our chest. It tracks our heart rate, heart rate zones, and calories burned during our workouts, and the stats are tracked in real time on a big 80″ monitor on the wall. It also keeps a running total each month so you can compete with other members…good stuff.
Anyway, the other day I had completed my workout, packed up my gear, and as I was getting ready to exit the building I glanced up at the monitor and saw that I had burned 990 calories during that training session. It was a pretty kick-ass workout, I was spent, and I felt really good…but if I walked out through those doors knowing I was only 10 calories away from burning a grand, I would have kicked myself in the butt!
I put my shit down next to a 250LB tire and for 90 seconds I did step-ups on that tire until I hit the 1000-calorie-burned threshold. I picked my shit up, walked out of the gym, and felt like $1000 bucks! That accomplishment carried me through the day and I had one of the best days recruiting that I have ever had! Great days on the phone lead to high volumes of activity, which lead to successful placements.
I once heard that right before the “tipping point” towards success is reached is when most people quit. And unfortunately one will never know how close they were. That is a thought that has stuck with me for a couple years now. The thought of knowing that success lies right on the cusp of struggle inspires me to power through when many others would walk away.
Don’t be the one that walks away.
If you are a recruiter and you have been banging the phones hard only to be rejected time after time, I challenge you to power through. Make that one extra call or send that one extra email, no matter how frustrated, as that may be the action that uncovers the perfect candidate or client.
If you are a civil engineer who has ventured out on his own with the vision of building a successful, sustainable, thriving consulting engineering firm that will create jobs and deliver a top-notch product, but after 9-months you are still the only employee and you are living paycheck to paycheck, I challenge you to power through. Rather than hanging up the cleats and going back to work for another firm, continue to grind for another quarter, as all the hard work, long hours, and client development meetings just may be on verge of paying off!
If you have been chasing a particular client for years but have not yet broken through, don’t give up on them, continue to power through. Continue to be where they are. Continue to invite them out for coffee or lunch. Continue to provide any sort of value that you can to them. Don’t stop. One day their current engineering service provider will fall short of expectations and you will be there to pick up the pieces. One day there will be a change in leadership and you will have a new ear to bend. Your level of commitment to that potential client will one day pay off.
This concept of powering through has led to many successes for me over the years, only now I am learning to understand why.
Next time you burn 990 calories, find that extra gas in your tank to reach 1000…it may be the difference between failing and great success.
No Comments