A Profile In Scrappiness

Scrappiness is about being willing to “get dirt on your uniform”—rolling up your sleeves, doing the unglamorous work, and finding ways to help your team win. It’s an invaluable workplace mindset.

This past summer, I began working with a rising college senior studying communications and playing varsity baseball at a small college in Boston.

Ryan R. had experienced a major setback during his junior year. In the preseason, he slid into second base, broke his leg, and missed the entire season. As he now works his way back, he's also focused on what comes next: pursuing his long-term dream of becoming the General Manager of a Major League Baseball team.

During the summer, Ryan worked at a baseball facility. It gave him a way to earn money, get in plenty of practice swings, and maintain the flexibility he needed to train for the upcoming season.

During one of our early conversations, he mentioned something almost in passing: after only a week on the job, the owners of the baseball facility developed enough trust in him to give him a key to the facility so he could open and close on his own.

I asked him why he thought they trusted him so quickly.

His answer stuck with me:

“I think it’s because they know I take pride in giving 110%, no matter what the job is. If they asked me to clean the bathrooms, I’d be hell-bent on making sure they were the cleanest bathrooms in the state of Massachusetts.”

And there it was.

Not a credential. Not a class. Not a title.

A mindset.

Ryan takes pride in doing the work well, even when the work itself is not glamorous.

That matters.

In my work with college seniors, I often encourage them to ask themselves a question that has very little to do with their major or GPA:

What is something outside the classroom that you have chosen to get insanely good at—and what evidence is there that you're putting in the extra effort to improve every day?

For one person, it may be athletics. For another, running an event, leading a student organization, building something, working a service job, learning a technical skill, or becoming the person everyone trusts to get something done.

The specific activity matters less than the pattern behind it.

Scrappiness is not about pretending every task is exciting. It is about developing a reputation for effort, resourcefulness, follow-through, and pride in the work - even when nobody else is watching

And in a world where employers are trying to distinguish between candidates who can talk about potential and those who have already shown how they operate, that kind of track record can matter a great deal.

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