Are You a Finder, Minder, or Grinder?

A Grinder for Decades

The original intention of this story was to describe what a grinder I am.

Allow me to clarify that I am not on Grindr, although I do not judge those who are.

As one of my all-time favorite comedians is known to say, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”

The kind of a grinder that I am is one who grinds away. The persistent type who does not do many flashy things, but the kind of guy who chips away bit by bit and piece by piece until the job gets done.

I’m not a flashy kind of guy whatsoever. Not a bright star or successful entrepreneur. Not a boom-or-bust type of risk-taker. I have known hundreds or perhaps thousands of the latter, too many of whom went bust and some of whom even lost it all.

I am basically much the same guy that I was five, ten, or twenty-five years ago. Not the best at what I do but most definitely one of the better ones. If you assign me a task, I’ll get it done. If I tell you that I will be there next Tuesday night at 10 PM, you can etch it in stone that I will be there. If there is a bill to be paid, I will pay it.

I recognize that many of the positive attributes that I embody, like stick-to-itiveness, perseverance, and grit have also caused me to be the middle-class brother rather than the rich one. I am a “nice guy” and have been all-to-eager to please throughout my life including to my family, teachers, friends, neighbors, government officials, and, later on, my bosses and customers who consist of business owners, entrepreneurs, developers, property owners, and their ilk.

I grind it out daily, whether it is completing an assignment, writing up a report for my boss, a committee, or the City Council.

As an economic developer, I have been grinding away at building up the downtown for my community, bit by bit and piece by piece. No one big, flashy development although I am currently working on two of those right now (a new apartment building project and a microbrewery). I have helped build up the downtown methodically, one building and one small business at a time. A restaurant here, a dress shop there. A yoga studio here, a hair salon there.

Eventually, the puzzle pieces will all be filled in. Hopefully by about six or seven years from now, when I hope to pull the municipal plug and go into my next phase: “working retirement.”

I grind it out when it comes to investing on my family’s and my own behalf, sending a few hundred dollars here and a few hundred dollars there on a monthly basis over the course of decades rather than five or six figures at a time, like some friends and relatives of mine do. That is how I was able, on my modest salary with a stay-at-home wife, to save over a hundred thousand dollars for each of our children’s college accounts over the period of fifteen years without ever making an investment of over $500 to either one.

Grinding away is how I probably would have beaten you at baseball, basketball, or running. Running is probably the least of the three where grinding harder could lead to victory. If you are faster than me, there’s not much that I can do to beat you. However, by my senior year of high school, I finally did learn how to power up that hill so I could pass a dozen runners at the end of a race rather than getting passed by them.

In baseball and basketball, I was never the star of the team, but always someone who you knew would compete hard with you and gain your respect. In baseball, I could often flat-out beat others simply with my pitching talent.

Mind you, this is decades ago.

If you could not catch up with my above-average fastball or hit a curve, I would get you out. I got more guys out than I could possibly recall, often striking out ten or more batters in a seven-inning game.

Did I become a major-league pitcher?

Obviously not.

Did I grind away, pitching almost all complete games and going after every batter like game seven of the World Series depended on the next pitch?

You bet I did.

I recall a game early on in high school where a team that I had previously dominated got the better of me. It began raining and I was hoping that the game would get called off. I started making excuses, although it was true that I had a hard time toeing the rubber and gaining a foothold when I made my pitch. The ball was slippery and hard to control or get to curve.

This team that I had previously shut down over an entire game and the first few innings of that particular contest caught a few lucky breaks. Bloop hits and mishandled grounders due to the rain. Then they hit a few line drives into the gaps. I walked a few batters, which was very rare for me. Before you knew it, about seven straight guys had reached base and there were four runs in with the bases still loaded.

I mention this game for three reasons. First off, it is quite easy to write that I would have easily struck you out and bask in my pitching glory in the eighties while not mentioning what I always thought of as a humiliating failure. The other team was laughing and jeering during their entire seven-run rally while I felt humiliated and stood in the rain, even telling them that the game should be called and yelling the same at the umpire.

Second, once the game was hopelessly lost, I still asked my coach to remain in the game. Even after giving up a seven-run inning, I thought that I could shut them down the rest of the way. Ultimately, the game was called off, but not until after an official loss and my ERA (earned run average) climbing from the low twos to over twice that.

Third of all, I was more determined than ever and could not get that humiliating loss and the other team’s taunts out of my mind. I mowed those guys down like they were my mortal enemies the next time that I went against them under more favorable conditions. Man, was I a grinder back then!

Likewise, in basketball, I never once dunked in a game and only hit the occasional three-pointer.

What I did do is compete hard every minute I was out there, taking it personally if my man scored on me, and even more personally if I lost the ball, made a bad pass, or took a stupid shot. Like baseball, my basketball days are far behind me, but I certainly enjoyed those years while they lasted and was always known as a tough player who almost never missed a shot in the clutch.

Please do not misconstrue my brief sports glory days stories to mean that I was some type of star player because that was most definitely not the case. Even when I won a game pitching, every batter battled me just as I battled them. Many a game was decided by a great play by a fielder behind me or a clutch hit by a teammate. Most of the basketball games that my team won were due to the stellar play of teammates. Both baseball and basketball are team sports, thus I played for teams that won despite me playing poorly and also lost many games when I personally performed well.

My point is that had you succeeded in beating me in a race or your team beat mine when I was pitching or you outplayed me and led your basketball team to victory, you could go away feeling pretty good about yourself and you would have come away thinking, Damn, did that scrappy Jew play hard!

Finders and Minders

Finders live for the thrill of the hunt. If you fit better into this category, you are aggressive, competitive, and impatient with paperwork. As soon as a sale is clinched or a project successfully completed, you are out there seeking your next conquest. You are the classic rainmaker.

Finders are entrepreneurial. They love change and seize opportunities. They are generally charming, charismatic, and smooth-talking. They love to promote and can persuade anyone of anything. They are always up for a challenge and are extremely competitive, but can get bored quite easily.

I am frequently impressed by entrepreneurs with whom I meet during the normal course of my work who see opportunities in the community that I do not despite having worked there for many years.

Of course, as I mentioned earlier, I also often know right away that what they want to do will most likely not work out the way they want it to. I assist them nonetheless, as my job description requires. Hence, my super-cautionary mindset when it comes to opening a business in a fickle industry like restaurants or other entertainment and hospitality venues.

In other words, I admire the successful finders like the ones who have become multimillionaires running their own businesses and living by their own rules and schedule while I continue grinding away.

Minders are people-persons and relationship builders. For those in the minder category, a sale or project begins at the time of the close or implementation. You take pride in providing strong customer service and it shows in your high customer retention ratios. You believe a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Minders mind and bridge the gaps and are those accessible types who are on the front line of your organization, maintaining the relationships and coordinating the efforts of their colleagues. They keep everything humming along and are always aware of everyone’s activities. They are often in managerial positions.

So What Are You?

Are you like me, and grind away bit by bit, dollar by dollar, day by day, and year by year?

Are you more like my brother and the many business people who I have worked with over the past twenty years, a Finder who is out there seeking the next deal?

Are you minding the customers and relationships that you already have?

Some combination of the three?