I had lunch with an entrepreneur friend. We talked about what his next company will look like. He isn’t sure what the company will do or the space it will be in, but he’s crystal clear on the kind of people he wants to work with: people he calls “grinders.” They work hard, create no drama, and win. Their goal isn’t to be praised regardless of the quality of their work; it’s to do great work and win by making customers happy.

I thought about this more later in the day and texted him some thoughts about also wanting people who are learners. His replies went deeper than I was thinking. He wants people who have a “diverse track record of success” that “shows they can figure things out.” And then he made a sports analogy that I love. Alluding to a successful recruiting strategy that college football coach Urban Meyer used to win three national championships at two schools, he said he wants to work with multisport athletes.

“Diverse track record of success” stuck with me. To have one, a person has to do several things. First, put in the work to learn new things: learn the rules of a new game, learn new skills required to compete, etc. Second, figure out how to apply what they’ve learned. Learning is nice but not valuable if you can’t apply it. Last, compete at a high level. To my friend’s point, anyone who demonstrates this is someone I want to work with.