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Mary Nhin's secrets to cultivating grit

Every first Friday I invite a female entrepreneur to The Treasury to share her story and advice with our community. Last week our members had the pleasure of hearing the entrepreneurship journey of Mary Nhin.

I asked Mary to come share her story of building the Nhinja Sushi restaurant empire with her husband and becoming a popular children’s book author. Her restaurant’s five locations have made $100 million in revenue over the past 15 years and she’s sold more than a million of her popular children’s books. She’s enviably successful on the surface, but I was so encouraged to hear her perspective on failure.

Along the way to successful entrepreneurship, Mary and her husband opened a couple restaurants that failed. They brought on a partner that embezzled money. She wrote some books that didn’t gain traction.

It’s clear Mary isn’t successful because things come easy to her, she’s successful because she is mentally tough enough to fail and keep going.

How does she do it? She cultivates grit with what she calls the Four C’s. They’ve been so instrumental to her, she not only shares this strategy with the entrepreneurs she coaches, but she teaches them in her children’s book series. In a nutshell:

Calm: Create rituals that will help you focus.

Confident: Everyone has a negative voice inside their head. Talk back to that voice with positivity. For example, when your negative voice reminds you you don’t know what you’re doing, remind it “I don’t know how to do that yet.”

Capable: You can build capability by setting goals. Set goals in multiple categories like ones you can control (like process) and ones you can’t control (like performance and outcome).

Carefree: So many people struggle with this one because they’re afraid of failure, but Mary said a great way to become more carefree is to face your fear of failure head-on. Ask yourself, “What’s the worst thing that will happen if I fail at this? Write it down. You might be surprised to find your anxiety diminishes as you see it on paper.

It’s through candid learning opportunities like these that our members become better at what they do and have the resiliency to keep doing it when it’s hard. If you’re ready to join a community to help you succeed, become a member.