08/28/2026
There are a lot of systems out there that try and take the measure of a person, but for my purposes I only really need to look at these four: Brains, Brawn, Grit and Grace. (If you've got BBGG reach out to me, I might have work for you.)
I run a disaster recovery business, and when you're on a scene where someone is dealing with a personally devastating scene you need all four of these.
Brains: You need to be able to detach yourself and look at a scene with cool objectivity no matter how bad the smell, how wrecked the room is, or how upset the client standing next to you is. You need to be able to analyze and synthesize what's happened with the quickness. Before calling the boss (me), I require you to use your brains and puzzle through the issues before you. Read the SOP again, adjust where the reality doesn't meet the paperwork, price it out and sequence the work. If you're the supervisor allocate your people the right way. If your brains are falling out of your head that day, you can use me as a backup, that's what I'm here for. But use the brains that you were born with and don't use me as a crutch.
Brawn: At the end of the day, disaster recovery is going to require you to get physical. You'll be cleaning up after biohazard, or do demolition, or bag 40-50lbs of trash into a dumpster. Even if you're the supervisor, you sweat. This job is physical and you have to be able to use your body. That being said, brawn also means understanding your body and taking rest and water breaks before the work breaks you.
Grit: AKA - Determination. This one might actually be the most important attribute. When you're looking at a 3 day hoard clear out, trying to just get started can be daunting. Swallow that and get to work, one bag at a time. Grit also means being able to work through a difficult problem and not letting the complexity get the best of you. Grit requires flexibility and the ability to get the job done.
Grace: We are a service provider. We must strive to delight our clients, if we aren't doing that we're failing badly. In order to delight our clients, we need to recognize that they are having a terrible day and give them the space that they need to explain what their needs are. We ask questions, we carefully pick through artifacts with empathy and ask the client if they would like to retain mementos.
You won't find all four of these in equal measure in any one person, and you don't need to. What you need is to know which ones you bring, and the humility to lean on people who cover the rest. That's the whole idea behind building a team instead of hiring a hero. So if you've got Brains, Brawn, Grit, and Grace we can put you to work. And if you're strong in three and still building the fourth, we've probably got someone who's the opposite. That's not a bug it's a feature.
