The Real Key to Success: Grit

“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.”
~ Steve Jobs

Last week I read a book my brother recommended called Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by psychology professor Angela Duckworth. An ambitious young woman, she studied neuroscience at Harvard and neurobiology at Oxford. Early in her career she worked as a management consultant for an impressive global consulting firm. In a move that surprised her family and friends, she gave up her corporate position to teach 7th grade math in a public school in New York City. After a few years of teaching, she became curious about why some of her seemingly less talented students got very good grades in her class while some of her brightest did not perform well.

Clearly aptitude was not the only factor in achievement, she reasoned, despite the importance schools and parents place on testing.

She decided to make another career change to satisfy her curiosity. She went to grad school and studied psychology under Martin Seligman, one of the founders of positive psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, who I’ve written about and whose books I have enjoyed.

When it was time to begin her research, she chose the area of achievement. She decided to interview two different groups of students to see if she could determine the factors that led to their success: cadets who graduated with honors at West Point Military Academy and winners of the National Spelling Bee. She also talked to dozens of adults at the top of their fields to see if she could determine what the common denominator was.

At West Point she discovered that although previous psychologists had studied the admissions process trying to determine which cadets would succeed, their predictions were notoriously poor. Each semester, some of the students with the best credentials dropped out, while others who had barely made it into the academy went on to hit their stride.

Through extensive interviews about the work habits of the students, she was able to determine that perseverance was that common denominator.

She came up with a two-part formula:

Natural Talent x Effort = Skill

Skill x Effort = Achievement

Or, as she puts it, effort is twice as important as talent.

After discovering a similar phenomenon when talking with the participants in the National Spelling Bee, she began to hone in on a concept she called “grit,” which she defined as “passion and perseverance for very long-term goals.” It is having stamina, “sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality.” She found that her theory applied to many fields from the arts to the sciences.

One concept that struck me early on in my reading is that as much as we know that hard work can lead to accomplishment, studies have shown that we’re more drawn to the idea of natural talent. There’s something in us that wants to believe that gifted people like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, and Simone Biles have emerged fully formed.

One of the reasons we enjoy watching the Olympics so much is the opportunity to view what look like super-human feats. We’re so impressed with the athletes and their superior skills that we put them on a pedestal and see them as heroes. Only when we watch the vignettes that show their backstories do we realize how young most of them were when they started learning their skills, the endless hours of practice before and after school, the significant challenges they faced along the way. So many had heartbreaking injuries and setbacks, and all of them lost competitions again and again before they became recognized as some of the finest athletes in the world.

For an explanation of the disparity between what we know, and what we secretly believe, Duckworth turned to German philosopher Friedrich Nietzche, who opined on the subject of genius and famously said, “Our vanity, our self-love, promotes the cult of the genius. For if we think of genius as something magical, we are not obliged to compare ourselves and find ourselves lacking.” He believed that genius is attained—that mastery is something that is achieved over years of intense focus and practice.

Hmmm. Definitely some food for thought there.

How many times have you said to someone who has done something impressive, “I could never do that!”

By declaring so, however, we eliminate many possibilities in our lives. Or we may try, briefly, find something challenging, and give up too soon.

The way Duckworth sees it, grit is either unrelated, or even inversely related to talent, which explains why some of her most gifted students did worse than some of the most challenged. Without grit, talent may be nothing more than unmet potential.

The real keys to success, she has found, are determination, perseverance, and practice, practice, practice.

In her book she provides a personal example which is a testament to her own grit. A few years before her book was published, she was contacted about doing a six-minute TED talk on her topic. She was honored, and agreed readily. She was asked to submit a video, on which she would receive feedback. It would be a rehearsal of sorts. Unfortunately, her initial presentation left something to be desired, she was told in fairly blunt terms. It was too scientific, she had too many slides, and not enough relatable examples. And there was no suspense.

Completely deflated at first, she summoned up her courage, revised it, and then practiced it in front of her family. Her daughters offered that she said “Um” far too often and she bit her lip, which was distracting. She had to go back to the drawing board and practice, practice, practice. As you can see from the final video, on the day she did her actual presentation in front of hundreds of people, she was totally in the zone. No one in the live audience was aware of what it took for her to accomplish that. It has since had 9.8 million views.

Duckworth is quick to point out that, of course, grit is not the only trait that contributes to our success. Since she coined the concept, many other psychologists have added to the research in the area. Here’s a discussion of five other characteristics closely associated with grit which are also important to consider.

Part II of Duckworth’s book is called “Growing Grit from the Inside Out,” and is about the intersection of grit with interest, practice, passion, purpose, and hope.

There is no one formula for success in any endeavor, but this book has moved the needle for me in my understanding of what it takes to truly pursue our dreams.

Thanks for the great recommendation, Bro.

I have a feeling this book is going to inspire more than just this one post. Stay tuned!

Affectionately,

Elaine