Grit is one of the core values of CSQ. When I look back on the accomplishments I am most proud of, they all required a significant amount of Grit. I grew up as the oldest of 5 children and my Dad would always come up with projects to keep us busy on weekends and summers. Video games were fairly prevalent but not in our household. We would work on projects with him, hoping to lend a hand however we could. My parents bought the house behind ours as an an investment and during one summer my Dad asked us to cut down and chop up 5 pine trees – by axe! They were about 40′ tall and 14″ in diameter. My brothers and I were eager to take on the task. In retrospect, it was miracle one of the tree didn’t land on the house, but with a few ropes, one axe, and wet finger in the wind, we were able to take them all down. The hard part, the part that required Grit, was to cut the trees up into 30″ logs to be used for firewood, all by axe. In retrospect, we could have rented a chainsaw for $100 and finished the job in a few days. But instead, it took us the better part of the entire summer. And along the lines of “not being the sharpest tool in the shed”, we never sharpened the axe! I’m sure my Dad, in all his wisdom, knew exactly what he was asking us to do and what he wasn’t offering – a chainsaw or even an axe sharpener. Needless to say this is one of my earliest memories I have of Grit. Since then I’ve applied Grit to everything I’ve put my head to and CSQ is no different. In these trying times of Covid-19, Grit is one of the attributes that will get us through to the other side. And it will be worth it!