Finding Purpose in the Grind

Having to choose between surrender and survival forced me to channel all the self-control I could muster and engross myself into the details of a definite plan for climbing out of the hole we found ourselves in after that near-foreclosure experience. I mentioned receiving a whopping $16 check as part of the class action lawsuit that we weren’t even aware of. I didn’t mention that the entire debacle cost us around $10k. For many, that would have been annoying but not catastrophic. For us, though, it just as well have been $100k. 

That was one more scenario where my highly DRIVEN behavioral style carried me through. With surrender being something I wasn’t even willing to consider, I didn’t see any other option than finding purpose in the grind. By that time in my life, I had read Think and Grow Rich a few times and I had been listening to the audio version during much of the tedious data entry that was part of my job. I had read (and heard) Napoleon Hill say “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit,” hundreds - possibly thousands - of times at that point. I don’t think I completely understood all I’d need to do to find and nurture that seed yet then, but I was beginning to understand how important it was for me to look for it.

Focusing on how we (specifically, me) could grow through that adversity, rather than wallowing in self-pity, allowed little time to think about how much it hurt. And through all that came subtle shifts in the trust Cindy had in me, our overall family resilience, and the respect I continued to earn with my peers in the workplace. Learning to quietly pivot through scarcity builds authentic relational influence; remaining consistent through that grind long-term earns trust no title can grant.

I’d love to say that Cindy and I have been 100% on the same page with every decision since; I can’t, so I won’t. Seriously, does that ever happen in any relationship? If someone makes that claim, they’re gonna lie to you about other things too! What I can share is that fighting through that adversity together deepened what was then a ten-year-old relationship more than anything we had experienced to that point. Little did we know how much we’d need that soon; more to come on that…

I’ve often heard people say, “It’s nothing personal, it’s just business.” Here’s a word of caution: Keep those people at arm’s reach - if you have to deal with them at all. Just like John Maxwell emphasized in his book, There’s No Such Thing as Business Ethics, personal core values show up in every business decision - and vice-versa. The same applies to earning influence. For me, fighting through the adversity of the near-foreclosure and being forced to earn home-based resource leadership tied directly to professional reliability and built quiet credibility. Making the best of resource failures isn’t mere survival—it’s intentional preparation that transforms the grind into chains of purpose-driven leadership readiness.

We’ll look at more on how that personal adversity actually helped me earn more professional influence next, and I’ll offer a few questions in challenging you to mine your own scarcities for every purpose-driven seed you can possibly find. Before we dig into that, think about one small piece of your own scarcity-to-purpose story. Share it with someone you trust implicitly and detail every positive ripple that’s come as a result.