It’s tempting to attribute the success of extraordinary athletes and artists to natural talent, especially because that suggests that normal people haven’t done anything wrong and can’t possibly hope to compete with them. Yet all the scientific evidence shows that true achievement almost always comes from hard work. In other words, people who focus on talent miss out on the opportunity to grow. For instance, students who see themselves as untalented tend to give up on academic challenges rather than working to improve their skills. But focusing on talent has clear downsides. So does McKinsey, the prestigious consulting firm where Duckworth worked before becoming a teacher. She realized that her hardworking students earned higher grades than her more mathematically talented students, which flew in the face of conventional wisdom-most Americans attribute success to talent, not hard work.
Similarly, Duckworth has found that grittier salespeople are more likely to stay in their jobs, grittier high schoolers are more likely to graduate, and grittier spelling bee contestants are more likely to make it far in the National Spelling Bee.ĭuckworth first became interested in grit while teaching middle-school math in New York City. But grit does, at least when measured by Duckworth’s Grit Scale questionnaire. Military Academy at West Point, academic scores and athletic performance don’t predict who makes it through the grueling six-week summer program called Beast Barracks. But ironically, Duckworth won a MacArthur “Genius Grant” for proving him wrong and showing that grit matters more than talent.
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Finally, she teaches parents, educators, and leaders how to help others cultivate grit.ĭuckworth opens by recalling how, when she was growing up, her father always told her that she was “no genius.” Like many people, he believed that talent is inherent and fixed. Next, she explains how to identify and develop the four key traits of grit-interest, practice, purpose, and hope. In the first, she introduces the fundamentals of grit. Perhaps most importantly, they never give up on their primary goals. They dedicate time and energy to building the skills they need to succeed, then consistently apply those skills until they do. Gritty people clearly understand what they want to accomplish and why. Grit predicts achievement because it fosters the most effective approach to problem-solving. Specifically, over more than a decade of intensive psychological research, Duckworth has found that the most successful people tend to have grit-which combines a sustained commitment to specific long-term goals (or passion) with the ability to work tirelessly toward those goals and easily bounce back from failure (or perseverance). In Grit, psychologist Angela Duckworth argues that, contrary to popular belief, the secret to extraordinary achievement isn’t talent, “ genius,” or IQ, but rather effort.
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