It's no secret that there's much to admire about Fixer Upper stars Chip and Joanna Gaines [1] — their incredible talent, great marriage, beautiful family, and burgeoning design empire [2], just to name a few. The couple's success isn't an accident, and it didn't happen overnight. As Chip is quick to admit, he made some big mistakes along the way, but without them, he wouldn't be where he is today. In his hotly anticipated new book Capital Gaines [3], Chip gets candid, sharing his path to professional success through a series of inspiring anecdotes told in Chip's signature playful voice. Enjoy this sneak peek excerpt of Capital Gaines below, then head to Magnolia Market to preorder your copy [4] of the book, out Oct. 17.
If I had to describe myself in one word, it would be handsome. But if I had to pick another word, it would be scrappy.
I understand that for some, the word scrappy may have a negative connotation. Maybe you think of a school-aged kid, small for his age, but out there mixing it up with some of the bigger kids in the grade above just to get a reaction out of them. Or maybe you picture a bunch of young men on a basketball court, elbowing one another and taking cheap shots just to get some points on the board. It's even possible that it brings to mind the neighborhood stray cat that sneaks into your backyard, knocks over the trash can, and eats last night's table scraps.
You picking up what I'm putting down? The knee-jerk reaction to the word scrappy is usually something along the lines of "do whatever it takes to get a leg up," no matter who you may hurt along the way.
Forget all that. That's not the way I understand the word at all. I take the word to mean: To have grit. To never give up. To be willing to take a guess even if you don't have all the information.
We use the word scrappy so often at Magnolia, and whether you perceive it in a humorous or endearing way, it's a rallying call for us here. To us it looks a whole lot different than elbowing and roughhousing. I found this definition on UrbanDictionary.com, and I like it: "Someone or something that appears dwarfed by a challenge, but more than compensates for seeming inadequacies through will, persistence and heart."
These three attributes eclipse formal training, in my opinion, any day of the week. Without a doubt, we scrappy types will do whatever it takes when we're going head-to-head with challenges. When others bail for one reason or another, we're just getting warmed up. To me that's what it means to be scrappy.
I'm not sure how we all came to have these qualities at Magnolia, but one way or another, we all seem to have drunk the Kool-Aid. At least 75 percent of our workforce are millennials, and for a lot of them, this is their first real job. I'm forty-two and almost twice the age of the average employee at our company, so I still have a couple of things to teach these kids. But it's always been my style to let people figure things out on their own, and there's something inherently scrappy about that.
Taken from Capital Gaines by Chip Gaines Copyright © 2017. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson [5].