Adversity & Me, Me, Me

I knew that writing this newsletter would challenge me. I’d have to rebuild my schedule to fit in writing and it would force me to crystalize thoughts into real perspectives. I also knew that it would be an accountability mechanism. If I write about this stuff, I’d better live it out.

Turns out it only took until Week 9 to get my first gut punch of 2025 and a real accountability check to live out what I state to believe. Allow me to frame this up a bit, and then let’s circle back to some thoughts about the title of this article, adversity & me, me, me.

So far, what you’ve heard from me in the first 8 articles is:

• Work has the power to unify people

• Our worth does not hinge on our success

• Our first job is to grow as human beings

• Character growth is more important than our accomplishments

• Work is fundamentally good for us

• Embrace inefficiency to win hearts and unlock human flourishing

• We move up so that we can lift up

• Winning at work matters, but we do it together

I’m going to be a bit vulnerable and share just how real the YPT has been for me this past week. First, I want to acknowledge some ways I have been challenged by all eight of those articles, and then second, I hope to provide some encouragement for both of us.

How I was Trapped

Over the second half of 2024 our team at Grit built a bunch of momentum. Just 18 months ago, it had been one of the toughest stretches in our company’s ten-year history, so there was a lot to be thankful for walking into this new year.

Momentum continued to build over the first few weeks of 2025, as talented people joined to fill critical seats. Amidst this, however, we’d quickly found ourselves behind plan on revenue for Q1. As many of you can likely attest or relate to, pulling forward expenses and being behind on revenue is not a great feeling. Which brings me to this week. Despite all the feelings of gratitude I’d started the year with, these challenges were causing me to slip into the same trap I’m writing about each week.

Here’s how it sounded in my head this week.

• I am in danger of not winning and I need to do something about it

• I need to keep winning so that I can have the impact I want to have

• I have to fix things fast so I can keep us on our growth track

• Grit needs to be successful, it isn’t good for me when it struggles

• I have to prove that I can hit that next level of revenue and EBITDA

• I need to keep my CEO credibility so this newsletter isn’t diminished

• I can’t go backwards or it will be the second time I’ve failed a career

• This is on me. I have to fix this. Nobody else can or will.

I was facing some real adversity, and it was all about me, me, me. 

The point is not to share this so that I can wallow in self-pity. I share because I know I’m not alone. I share because this is the entire point of writing this newsletter. 👉️ The Young Professional Trap isn’t something that you learn about and then permanently overcome. It is a day by day journey and one that shouldn’t be made alone. 👈️ 

Finding a Better Approach to Adversity

While this week has been hard, I’m finding my way back to gratitude. Any fruit that you pull from today’s newsletter is living proof that our work is fundamentally good for us, especially when it is hard.

Since I know I’m not the only one to have fallen into the me, me, me trap, let’s pause on why this is such a tempting path, and make sure we let it sink in. When we find ourselves facing hard moments, it is important to recognize that our identity is sneaking into the equation.

Culture loves to tell us that facing adversity is when you prove to yourself and to everyone else that you can overcome it.

Read that sentence again, and then let’s think about the good and the bad of it.

• The Good: Overcoming challenges is fundamental to our growth and maturity as humans.

• The Miss: The true adversity occurs in the heart, not in the real-world circumstances you are facing.

Let’s commit to a better approach to facing adversity. While it is easy to slip into a self-centered mindset like I did, let’s commit to the pursuit of heart level growth, for ourselves and those around us.

You see, the thing is, that if you are feeling the heat, others are too. Your co-workers, your vendors, your customers, your families, your friends. Everyone is feeling it and that presents a real opportunity to grow with them on a deeper level.

It is much easier to push down your feelings and simply focus on getting the job done. Don’t fall into that trap! Commit to slowing down, to digging in, and doing the hard work for good growth. I promise human and business flourishing will multiply if you do!

In it Together

So as you go into this week, my challenge for you is to pause and consider where this is showing up in work today. What difficult circumstances are you facing? Are you buckling down to prove to yourself you can do it? Or are you looking inward to consider what the affliction is teaching you about your heart?

As you ask these questions, don’t do it alone. This article is a byproduct of the loving correction of like-minded people alongside me. Adversity tries to convince you that you have to be the hero and do it on your own. The real heroic action is to invite others into the struggle with you. To pursue interdependence! To pursue hearts over outcomes ❤️ 

As always, please respond to this email if you’d like to talk and discuss anything from this or prior posts! If you don’t feel like you have that community to reach out to, respond to this email and I would be grateful for the opportunity to walk alongside you in your adversity. And if you have any friends who you think might derive value from this - I’d love for you to share it with them.

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With Hope and Gratitude,

Alex