Donna BrownFounder, The Business Design Studio

BIZ BITES with DONNA BROWN: FLOW VS GRIND

28 Jan 2017 · 3 min

Watch on YouTube

2:45

In this solo talk, Donna Brown challenges the dominant hustle‑and‑grind narrative that many entrepreneurs equate with success. She argues that this language resonates mainly with people who naturally identify with relentless effort, leaving others feeling inadequate. Brown introduces an alternative mindset she calls “flow,” using the metaphor of water to illustrate a softer, adaptable, and persistent way of navigating obstacles. She describes how water, from a single drop to a powerful waterfall, gradually smooths stone, wears down granite, and finds its way through the smallest crevices, contrasting this with the hustler’s view of obstacles as solid walls to be broken or climbed. By adopting a flow approach—being flexible, patient, and continuously eroding challenges—entrepreneurs can bring their work to the world with smoother, more sustainable energy. The talk ends with the encouragement to “be water,” inviting listeners to experiment with this mindset in their businesses.

Chapters

There's a lot of talk about hustle and grind, and these seem to be the buzzwords that everybody's using as a sure sign of success. And I think that the people that use them the most and that feel most comfortable with these words are people who have that kind of buzz inside them that they are that kind of person and it's really in alignment with them. But there's so many of us that don't really identify with that word, and we feel somehow maybe that we're not a great entrepreneur or whatever if we're not hustling, hustling, hustling, or we don't have this sense of struggle and effort. And I wanted to give you something maybe else that you could think of that could be of help. And what I like to think of is water. So I think the difference is between hustle and grind and flow. And so flow is no less powerful, it just has a different way of moving and a different energy about it. If you think of water, and it can be anything from just a drop of water to a huge and majestic waterfall, and there's something very powerful about water. We all know that it, it smooths stones and wears paths through granite and through things that are so So much harder than we are, so they don't actually try and beat down an obstacle or climb over this big mountain or whatever they have. They just slowly, slowly work away at it and can wear it down and go around it. So water itself is very adaptable. It's soft, it goes into small spaces, it finds its way around things. So the Hustler and Grinder sees an obstacle as a wall, as something solid that they have to climb, that they have to beat down, or they have to break down, or whatever. But water flows and finds its way around it. Anybody who's had problems with water in their home, some kind of leak, will know that water can find itself into the weirdest crevices and the smallest places and can get sometimes so much further than maybe if we push. So the concept of flow, I would invite you to think about that and see how that feels for you and for your business. And for how you face your challenges and how you, and how you act and how you bring your work to the world in flow, which is powerful, softer, smoother energy, and see how that works for you. Be water. Be water.