A GRIT STORY FROM THE GROUND UP

Alex Loi, Founder of Grit Club, shares a personal story about the early days of her career — a time when grit meant choosing the harder path, not for recognition, but for growth.

When people hear the title “C-level executive,” they rarely imagine what came before it. The early mornings, the uncomfortable choices, the decision to do the things no one else wanted to do. My first job out of university was in marketing. It sounded exciting on paper, but I knew I wanted to understand something deeper — the reality of how things moved, how products reached people, how brands lived beyond PowerPoint slides.

So I asked to be transferred to sales. Not the glamorous kind.
The kind where you walk into supermarkets, check stock on shelves, pull products from the warehouse, and see first-hand what sells, what doesn’t, and why. Everyone else wanted to climb the ladder to marketing executive. And here I was, choosing to roll up my sleeves and restack cereal boxes. It didn’t feel like ambition. It felt like truth.

I learned that strategy means nothing if you don’t understand execution. That you can’t lead teams or build a brand unless you’ve lived the experience you’re asking others to have.

Was it easy? No.
But grit isn’t about ease. It’s about clarity.
About choosing what’s right, not what’s impressive.

That season of my life shaped the kind of leader I’ve become.
One who’s not afraid to start at the bottom.
One who values every layer of the process.
One who never forgets where it all began.

And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this:

Sometimes, the biggest step forward is the one that takes you off the expected path.

Alex Loi shares more on mindset, purpose, and redefining success in her book “From Wanting to Getting.”