#25 - The 2 Kinds of “Grind”

As rewarding as it is to learn something new and challenging, the process can feel daunting at the outset when you’re staring up at this mountain you have to climb.

My partner rarely feels that way. She’s excited from start to finish.

When I asked her ‘why?’, she said,

To her, that was just an off-hand comment, but to me it was a profound soundbite. One that I’ve quoted many times.

It’s changed how I look at the “grind” — the difficult things we do because we believe the reward to be worth the pain.

There are two kinds of “grind” out there, and we can approach them differently. I’ll tell you what they are and why the distinction is important. And then I’ll tell you why they’re on my mind.

1) The Perpetual Grind

These are the “grinds” that never end, like staying in shape or working your job.

You don’t necessarily need to love doing these things, but the pain of it needs to be manageable. It can’t totally disrupt the balance of your life. If the weight of the “grind” is slowly crushing you, then you need to get out from under it.

2) The Temporary Grind

These are the “grinds” that you only need to do once. Like learning how to use that enterprise software at work or getting that MVP out by Feb 26th.

Like the perpetual grind, the reward needs to be worth it. But here’s the key difference: the pain doesn’t need to be manageable. It can totally disrupt the balance of your life.

Why? Because it’s temporary. Once you’re over the hill and down the other side, you don’t have to experience it again. And the life that’s waiting for you on the other side may be well worth it.

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Here’s why it’s on my mind. I’m working on an app with some friends, and it. is. a. GRIND.

For example:

• Me and another co-founder are banging out an MVP for a Feb 26 launch date, and I’m not sleeping well and I’m less available to my partner as a result.

• The rest of the team is focusing on go-to-market and a bunch of other important activities, and coordinating it all sometimes causes tension between us.

I can’t sustain this level of imbalance of in my life. I know that. But thankfully, these are temporary grinds.

Ya, the engineering work is demanding right now. But a lot that is because I’m learning a new app development framework that I never used before. We’re setting up design patterns, back-end infrastructure, deployment pipelines, etc. But I only need to learn Flutter once, and a lot of this infrastructure, once setup, will seldom need altering.

Ya, the co-working has added some friction into our friendships. But this is the first time we’re working together. There are growing pains there. Once we know how to communicate effectively with one another, leverage each other’s strengths and manage each other’s weaknesses, we will have paid down an investment that we can reap for the lifetime of our working relationship.

So I can climb this mountain. I’d climb it twice if I had to. Because the landscape I’m picturing on the other side is gorgeous.

More details to come on the app soon!

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See you next week — Rayhan