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Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance Paperback – August 21, 2018
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The daughter of a scientist who frequently noted her lack of “genius,” Angela Duckworth is now a celebrated researcher and professor. It was her early eye-opening stints in teaching, business consulting, and neuroscience that led to her hypothesis about what really drives success: not genius, but a unique combination of passion and long-term perseverance.
In Grit, she takes us into the field to visit cadets struggling through their first days at West Point, teachers working in some of the toughest schools, and young finalists in the National Spelling Bee. She also mines fascinating insights from history and shows what can be gleaned from modern experiments in peak performance. Finally, she shares what she’s learned from interviewing dozens of high achievers—from JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon to New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff to Seattle Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll.
“Duckworth’s ideas about the cultivation of tenacity have clearly changed some lives for the better” (The New York Times Book Review). Among Grit’s most valuable insights: any effort you make ultimately counts twice toward your goal; grit can be learned, regardless of IQ or circumstances; when it comes to child-rearing, neither a warm embrace nor high standards will work by themselves; how to trigger lifelong interest; the magic of the Hard Thing Rule; and so much more. Winningly personal, insightful, and even life-changing, Grit is a book about what goes through your head when you fall down, and how that—not talent or luck—makes all the difference. This is “a fascinating tour of the psychological research on success” (The Wall Street Journal).
- Reading age5 years and up
- Print length368 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions5.5 x 0.9 x 8.38 inches
- PublisherScribner
- Publication dateAugust 21, 2018
- ISBN-101501111116
- ISBN-13978-1501111112
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Editorial Reviews
Review
—The Wall Street Journal
“Grit delves into the personal ingredients of great success. It’s worth reading…the gist is that talent and skill are less valuable than effort.”
—Andrew Ross Sorkin, TheNew York Times
"It really isn't talent but practice—along with passion—that makes perfect, explains psychologist Duckworth in this illuminating book. Inspiration for non-geniuses everywhere."
—People
“Grit is a pop-psych smash.”
—The New Yorker
“With Grit, Duckworth has now put out the definitive handbook for her theory of success. It parades from one essential topic to another on a float of common sense, tossing out scientific insights.”
—Slate
"If you have recently bumped into that word, grit, Duckworth is the reason...In education and parenting circles, her research has provided a much needed antipode to hovering, by which children are systematically deprived of the opportunity to experience setbacks, much less overcome them...What sticks with you [in Grit] are the testimonials, collected from sources as disparate as Will Smith, William James, and Jeff Bezos's mom, that relentlessly deflate the myth of the natural."
—The Atlantic
"A fascinating tour of the psychological research on success...A great service of Ms. Duckworth's book is her down-to-earth definition of passion. To be gritty, an individual doesn't need to have an obsessive infatuation with a goal. Rather, he needs to show 'consistency over time.' The grittiest people have developed long-term goals and are constantly working toward them."
—The Wall Street Journal
“Duckworth is the researcher most associated with the study and popularization of grit. And yet what I like about her new book, Grit, is the way she is pulling away from the narrow, joyless intonations of that word, and pointing us beyond the way many schools are now teaching it…Most important, she notes that the quality of our longing matters. Gritty people are resilient and hard working, sure. But they also, she writes, know in a very, very deep way what it is they want.”
—David Brooks, New York Times
"Grit is packed with great lessons. The tools and gems I took from this book aided me in being able to handle the adversity of my career coming to an unexpected end and finding my passion in writing."
—Chris Bosh, five-time NBA All Star
“[Have] no doubt: Grit is great. It's a lucid, informative, and entertaining review of the research Angela has assiduously conducted over the past decade or so. The book also includes suggestions on how to develop grit, and how we can help support grit in others. There are few people who wouldn't learn something from this book.”
—Scientific American (blog)
"An informative and inspiring contribution to the literature of success."
—Publishers Weekly
"Grit is a useful guide for parents or teachers looking for confirmation that passion and persistence matter, and for inspiring models of how to cultivate these important qualities."
—The Washington Post
"[Blends] anecdote and science, statistic and yarn...Not your grandpa's self-help book, but Duckworth's text is oddly encouraging, exhorting us to do better by trying harder, and a pleasure to read."
—Kirkus Reviews
"Engaging...With strong appeal for readers of Daniel H. Pink, Malcolm Gladwell, and Susan Cain, this is a must-have."
—Booklist
“Imagine that: a Philadelphia psychology professor setting the education world on fire with a one-syllable noun that just happens to define the city she currently calls home….Her book gives cause for hope and an immediate path to action.”
—Philly.com
“Psychologists have spent decades searching for the secret of success, but Angela Duckworth is the one who found it. In this smart and lively book, she not only tells us what it is, but also how to get it.”
—Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness
“A robust and engaging read, as Duckworth intersperses her own research with stories from her Chinese-American background, as well as interviews with high achievers in sport, business and the military…[The book includes a] riveting section on raising gritty children. When Duckworth suggests trashing the common parenting line ‘That’s OK, you tried your best’ and replacing it with the demanding yet supportive ‘That didn’t work. Let’s talk about how you approached it and what might work better,’ she made me want to cheer.”
—The Toronto Star
“A contemporary classic—a clarifying and deeply-researched book in the tradition of Stephen Covey and Carol Dweck. For anyone hoping to work smarter or live better, Grit is an essential—and perhaps life-changing—read.”
—Daniel H. Pink, New York Times-bestselling author of When, Drive, and To Sell Is Human
“Grit is a persuasive and fascinating response to the cult of IQ fundamentalism. Duckworth reminds us that it is character and perseverance that set the successful apart.”
—Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers
"Angela Duckworth [is] the psychologist who has made 'grit' the reigning buzzword in education-policy circles...Duckworth's ideas about the cultivation of tenacity have clearly changed some lives for the better...In this book, Duckworth, whose TED talk has been viewed more than eight million times, brings her lessons to the reading public."
—Judith Shulevitz, The New York Times Book Review
“Impressively fresh and original…Grit scrubs away preconceptions about how far our potential can take us.”
—Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking
“Fascinating. Angela Duckworth pulls together decades of psychological research, inspiring success stories from business and sports, and her own unique personal experience and distills it all into a set of practical strategies to make yourself and your children more motivated, more passionate, and more persistent at work and at school.”
—Paul Tough, author of How Children Succeed
“This book will change your life. Fascinating, rigorous, and practical, Grit is destined to be a classic in the literature of success.”
—Dan Heath, co-author of Made to Stick, Switch, and Decisive
“Utterly captivating, inspiring and original…Once you pick up Grit, you won't be able to tear yourself away.”
—Amy Cuddy, Harvard Business School professor and author of Presence
“Enlightening…Grit teaches that life’s high peaks aren’t necessarily conquered by the naturally nimble but, rather, by those willing to endure, wait out the storm, and try again.”
—Ed Viesturs, Seven-Time Climber of Mount Everest and author of No Shortcuts to the Top
“I kept wanting to read this book aloud—to my child, my husband, to everyone I care about. There are no shortcuts to greatness, it's true. But there is a roadmap, and you are holding it.”
—Amanda Ripley, author of The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way
“Readable, compelling and totally persuasive. The ideas in this book have the potential to transform education, management and the way its readers live. Angela Duckworth’s Grit is a national treasure.”
—Lawrence H. Summers, Former Secretary of the Treasury and President Emeritus at Harvard University
“Masterful…Grit offers a truly sane perspective: that true success comes when we devote ourselves to endeavors that give us joy and purpose.”
—Arianna Huffington, author of Thrive
“I’m convinced there are no more important qualities in striving for excellence than those that create true grit...I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did.”
—Brad Stevens, Coach of the Boston Celtics
“Empowering…Angela Duckworth compels attention with her idea that regular individuals who exercise self-control and perseverance can reach as high as those who are naturally talented—that your mindset is as important as your mind.”
—Soledad O’Brien, Chairman of Starfish MediaGroup and former co-anchor of CNN’s “American Morning”
“Invaluable…In a world where access to knowledge is unprecedented, this book describes the key trait of those who will optimally take advantage of it. Grit will inspire everyone who reads it to stick to something hard that they have a passion for.”
—Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy
“A combination of rich science, compelling stories, crisp graceful prose, and appealingly personal examples…Without a doubt, this is the most transformative, eye-opening book I’ve read this year.”
—Sonja Lyubomirsky, Professor, University of California, Riverside and author of The How of Happiness
“Incredibly important…There is deeply embodied grit, which is born of love, purpose, truth to one's core under ferocious heat, and a relentless passion for what can only be revealed on the razor’s edge; and there is the cool, patient, disciplined cultivation and study of resilience that can teach us all how to get there. Angela Duckworth's masterpiece straddles both worlds, offering a level of nuance that I haven’t read before.”
—Josh Waitzkin, International Chess Master, Tai Chi Push Hands World Champion, and author of The Art of Learning
“A thoughtful and engaging exploration of what predicts success. Grit takes on widespread misconceptions and predictors of what makes us strive harder and push further…Duckworth’s own story, wound throughout her research, ends up demonstrating her theory best; passion and perseverance make up grit.”
—Tory Burch, Chairman, CEO and Designer of Tory Burch
“I love an idea that challenges our conventional wisdom and 'grit' does just that! Put aside what you think you know about getting ahead and outlasting your competition, even if they are more talented. Getting smarter won't help you—sticking with it, will!”
—Simon Sinek, author of Start With Why and Leaders Eat Last
“Profoundly important. For eons, we've been trapped inside the myth of innate talent. Angela Duckworth shines a bright light into a truer understanding of how we achieve. We owe her a great debt.”
—David Shenk, author of The Genius in All of Us: New Insights into Genetics, Talent, and IQ
“An important book...In these pages, the leading scholarly expert on the power of grit (what my mom called 'stick-to-it-iveness') carries her message to a wider audience, using apt anecdotes and aphorisms to illustrate how we can usefully apply her insights to our own lives and those of our kids.”
—Robert D. Putnam, Professor of Public Policy at Harvard and author of Bowling Alone and Our Kids
“This book gets into your head, which is where it belongs…For educators who want our kids to succeed, this is an indispensable read.”
—Joel Klein, former Chancellor, New York City public schools
“Grit delivers! Angela Duckworth shares the stories, the science, and the positivity behind sustained success…A must-read.”
—Barbara Fredrickson, author of Positivity and Love 2.0 and President of the International Positive Psychology Association
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
By the time you set foot on the campus of the United States Military Academy at West Point, you’ve earned it.
The admissions process for West Point is at least as rigorous as for the most selective universities. Top scores on the SAT or ACT and outstanding high school grades are a must. But when you apply to Harvard, you don’t need to start your application in the eleventh grade, and you don’t need to secure a nomination from a member of Congress, a senator, or the vice president of the United States. You don’t, for that matter, have to get superlative marks in a fitness assessment that includes running, push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups.
Each year, in their junior year of high school, more than 14,000 applicants begin the admissions process. This pool is winnowed to just 4,000 who succeed in getting the required nomination. Slightly more than half of those applicants—about 2,500—meet West Point’s rigorous academic and physical standards, and from that select group just 1,200 are admitted and enrolled. Nearly all the men and women who come to West Point were varsity athletes; most were team captains.
And yet, one in five cadets will drop out before graduation. What’s more remarkable is that, historically, a substantial fraction of dropouts leave in their very first summer, during an intensive seven-week training program named, even in official literature, Beast Barracks. Or, for short, just Beast.
Who spends two years trying to get into a place and then drops out in the first two months?
Then again, these are no ordinary months. Beast is described in the West Point handbook for new cadets as “the most physically and emotionally demanding part of your four years at West Point . . . designed to help you make the transition from new cadet to Soldier.”
A Typical Day at Beast Barracks
5:00 a.m.
Wake-up
5:30 a.m.
Reveille Formation
5:30 to 6:55 a.m.
Physical Training
6:55 to 7:25 a.m.
Personal Maintenance
7:30 to 8:15 a.m.
Breakfast
8:30 to 12:45 p.m.
Training/Classes
1:00 to 1:45 p.m.
Lunch
2:00 to 3:45 p.m.
Training/Classes
4:00 to 5:30 p.m.
Organized Athletics
5:30 to 5:55 p.m.
Personal Maintenance
6:00 to 6:45 p.m.
Dinner
7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Training/Classes
9:00 to 10:00 p.m.
Commander’s Time
10:00 p.m.
Taps
The day begins at 5:00 a.m. By 5:30, cadets are in formation, standing at attention, honoring the raising of the United States flag. Then follows a hard workout—running or calisthenics—followed by a nonstop rotation of marching in formation, classroom instruction, weapons training, and athletics. Lights out, to a melancholy bugle song called “Taps,” occurs at 10:00 p.m. And on the next day the routine starts over again. Oh, and there are no weekends, no breaks other than meals, and virtually no contact with family and friends outside of West Point.
One cadet’s description of Beast: “You are challenged in a variety of ways in every developmental area—mentally, physically, militarily, and socially. The system will find your weaknesses, but that’s the point—West Point toughens you.”
So, who makes it through Beast?
It was 2004 and my second year of graduate school in psychology when I set about answering that question, but for decades, the U.S. Army has been asking the same thing. In fact, it was in 1955—almost fifty years before I began working on this puzzle—that a young psychologist named Jerry Kagan was drafted into the army, ordered to report to West Point, and assigned to test new cadets for the purpose of identifying who would stay and who would leave. As fate would have it, Jerry was not only the first psychologist to study dropping out at West Point, he was also the first psychologist I met in college. I ended up working part-time in his lab for two years.
Jerry described early efforts to separate the wheat from the chaff at West Point as dramatically unsuccessful. He recalled in particular spending hundreds of hours showing cadets cards printed with pictures and asking the young men to make up stories to fit them. This test was meant to unearth deep-seated, unconscious motives, and the general idea was that cadets who visualized noble deeds and courageous accomplishments should be the ones who would graduate instead of dropping out. Like a lot of ideas that sound good in principle, this one didn’t work so well in practice. The stories the cadets told were colorful and fun to listen to, but they had absolutely nothing to do with decisions the cadets made in their actual lives.
Since then, several more generations of psychologists devoted themselves to the attrition issue, but not one researcher could say with much certainty why some of the most promising cadets routinely quit when their training had just begun.
Soon after learning about Beast, I found my way to the office of Mike Matthews, a military psychologist who’s been a West Point faculty member for years. Mike explained that the West Point admissions process successfully identified men and women who had the potential to thrive there. In particular, admissions staff calculate for each applicant something called the Whole Candidate Score, a weighted average of SAT or ACT exam scores, high school rank adjusted for the number of students in the applicant’s graduating class, expert appraisals of leadership potential, and performance on objective measures of physical fitness.
You can think of the Whole Candidate Score as West Point’s best guess at how much talent applicants have for the diverse rigors of its four-year program. In other words, it’s an estimate of how easily cadets will master the many skills required of a military leader.
The Whole Candidate Score is the single most important factor in West Point admissions, and yet it didn’t reliably predict who would make it through Beast. In fact, cadets with the highest Whole Candidate Scores were just as likely to drop out as those with the lowest. And this was why Mike’s door was open to me.
From his own experience joining the air force as a young man, Mike had a clue to the riddle. While the rigors of his induction weren’t quite as harrowing as those of West Point, there were notable similarities. The most important were challenges that exceeded current skills. For the first time in their lives, Mike and the other recruits were being asked, on an hourly basis, to do things they couldn’t yet do. “Within two weeks,” Mike recalls, “I was tired, lonely, frustrated, and ready to quit—as were all of my classmates.”
Some did quit, but Mike did not.
What struck Mike was that rising to the occasion had almost nothing to do with talent. Those who dropped out of training rarely did so from lack of ability. Rather, what mattered, Mike said, was a “never give up” attitude.
Around that time, it wasn’t just Mike Matthews who was talking to me about this kind of hang-in-there posture toward challenge. As a graduate student just beginning to probe the psychology of success, I was interviewing leaders in business, art, athletics, journalism, academia, medicine, and law: Who are the people at the very top of your field? What are they like? What do you think makes them special?
Some of the characteristics that emerged in these interviews were very field-specific. For instance, more than one businessperson mentioned an appetite for taking financial risks: “You’ve got to be able to make calculated decisions about millions of dollars and still go to sleep at night.” But this seemed entirely beside the point for artists, who instead mentioned a drive to create: “I like making stuff. I don’t know why, but I do.” In contrast, athletes mentioned a different kind of motivation, one driven by the thrill of victory: “Winners love to go head-to-head with other people. Winners hate losing.”
In addition to these particulars, there emerged certain commonalities, and they were what interested me most. No matter the field, the most successful people were lucky and talented. I’d heard that before, and I didn’t doubt it.
But the story of success didn’t end there. Many of the people I talked to could also recount tales of rising stars who, to everyone’s surprise, dropped out or lost interest before they could realize their potential.
Apparently, it was critically important—and not at all easy—to keep going after failure: “Some people are great when things are going well, but they fall apart when things aren’t.” High achievers described in these interviews really stuck it out: “This one guy, he wasn’t actually the best writer at the beginning. I mean, we used to read his stories and have a laugh because the writing was so, you know, clumsy and melodramatic. But he got better and better, and last year he won a Guggenheim.” And they were constantly driven to improve: “She’s never satisfied. You’d think she would be, by now, but she’s her own harshest critic.” The highly accomplished were paragons of perseverance.
Why were the highly accomplished so dogged in their pursuits? For most, there was no realistic expectation of ever catching up to their ambitions. In their own eyes, they were never good enough. They were the opposite of complacent. And yet, in a very real sense, they were satisfied being unsatisfied. Each was chasing something of unparalleled interest and importance, and it was the chase—as much as the capture—that was gratifying. Even if some of the things they had to do were boring, or frustrating, or even painful, they wouldn’t dream of giving up. Their passion was enduring.
In sum, no matter the domain, the highly successful had a kind of ferocious determination that played out in two ways. First, these exemplars were unusually resilient and hardworking. Second, they knew in a very, very deep way what it was they wanted. They not only had determination, they had direction.
It was this combination of passion and perseverance that made high achievers special. In a word, they had grit.
For me, the question became: How do you measure something so intangible? Something that decades of military psychologists hadn’t been able to quantify? Something those very successful people I’d interviewed said they could recognize on sight, but couldn’t think of how to directly test for?
I sat down and looked over my interview notes. And I started writing questions that captured, sometimes verbatim, descriptions of what it means to have grit.
Half of the questions were about perseverance. They asked how much you agree with statements like “I have overcome setbacks to conquer an important challenge” and “I finish whatever I begin.”
The other half of the questions were about passion. They asked whether your “interests change from year to year” and the extent to which you “have been obsessed with a certain idea or project for a short time but later lost interest.”
What emerged was the Grit Scale—a test that, when taken honestly, measures the extent to which you approach life with grit.
In July 2004, on the second day of Beast, 1,218 West Point cadets sat down to take the Grit Scale.
The day before, cadets had said good-bye to their moms and dads (a farewell for which West Point allocates exactly ninety seconds), gotten their heads shaved (just the men), changed out of civilian clothing and into the famous gray and white West Point uniform, and received their footlockers, helmets, and other gear. Though they may have mistakenly thought they already knew how, they were instructed by a fourth-year cadet in the proper way to stand in line (“Step up to my line! Not on my line, not over my line, not behind my line. Step up to my line!”).
Initially, I looked to see how grit scores lined up with aptitude. Guess what? Grit scores bore absolutely no relationship to the Whole Candidate Scores that had been so painstakingly calculated during the admissions process. In other words, how talented a cadet was said nothing about their grit, and vice versa.
The separation of grit from talent was consistent with Mike’s observations of air force training, but when I first stumbled onto this finding it came as a real surprise. After all, why shouldn’t the talented endure? Logically, the talented should stick around and try hard, because when they do, they do phenomenally well. At West Point, for example, among cadets who ultimately make it through Beast, the Whole Candidate Score is a marvelous predictor of every metric West Point tracks. It not only predicts academic grades, but military and physical fitness marks as well.
So it’s surprising, really, that talent is no guarantee of grit. In this book, we’ll explore the reasons why.
By the last day of Beast, seventy-one cadets had dropped out.
Grit turned out to be an astoundingly reliable predictor of who made it through and who did not.
The next year, I returned to West Point to run the same study. This time, sixty-two cadets dropped out of Beast, and again grit predicted who would stay.
In contrast, stayers and leavers had indistinguishable Whole Candidate Scores. I looked a little closer at the individual components that make up the score. Again, no differences.
So, what matters for making it through Beast?
Not your SAT scores, not your high school rank, not your leadership experience, not your athletic ability.
Not your Whole Candidate Score.
What matters is grit.
Does grit matter beyond West Point? To find out, I looked for other situations so challenging that a lot of people drop out. I wanted to know whether it was just the rigors of Beast that demanded grit, or whether, in general, grit helped people stick to their commitments.
The next arena where I tested grit’s power was sales, a profession in which daily, if not hourly, rejection is par for the course. I asked hundreds of men and women employed at the same vacation time-share company to answer a battery of personality questionnaires, including the Grit Scale. Six months later, I revisited the company, by which time 55 percent of the salespeople were gone. Grit predicted who stayed and who left. Moreover, no other commonly measured personality trait—including extroversion, emotional stability, and conscientiousness—was as effective as grit in predicting job retention.
Around the same time, I received a call from the Chicago Public Schools. Like the psychologists at West Point, researchers there were eager to learn more about the students who would successfully earn their high school diplomas. That spring, thousands of high school juniors completed an abbreviated Grit Scale, along with a battery of other questionnaires. More than a year later, 12 percent of those students failed to graduate. Students who graduated on schedule were grittier, and grit was a more powerful predictor of graduation than how much students cared about school, how conscientious they were about their studies, and even how safe they felt at school.
Likewise, in two large American samples, I found that grittier adults were more likely to get further in their formal schooling. Adults who’d earned an MBA, PhD, MD, JD, or another graduate degree were grittier than those who’d only graduated from four-year colleges, who were in turn grittier than those who’d accumulated some college credits but no degree. Interestingly, adults who’d successfully earned degrees from two-year colleges scored slightly higher than graduates of four-year colleges. This puzzled me at first, but I soon learned that the dropout rates at community colleges can be as high as 80 percent. Those who defy the odds are especially gritty.
In parallel, I started a partnership with the Army Special Operations Forces, better known as the Green Berets. These are among the army’s best-trained soldiers, assigned some of the toughest and most dangerous missions. Training for the Green Berets is a grueling, multistage affair. The stage I studied comes after nine weeks of boot camp, four weeks of infantry training, three weeks of airborne school, and four weeks of a preparation course focused on land navigation. All these preliminary training experiences are very, very hard, and at every stage there are men who don’t make it through. But the Special Forces Selection Course is even harder. In the words of its commanding general, James Parker, this is “where we decide who will and who will not” enter the final stages of Green Beret training.
The Selection Course makes Beast Barracks look like summer vacation. Starting before dawn, trainees go full-throttle until nine in the evening. In addition to daytime and nighttime navigation exercises, there are four- and six-mile runs and marches, sometimes under a sixty-five-pound load, and attempts at an obstacle course informally known as “Nasty Nick,” which includes crawling through water under barbed wire, walking on elevated logs, negotiating cargo nets, and swinging from horizontal ladders.
Just getting to the Selection Course is an accomplishment, but even so, 42 percent of the candidates I studied voluntarily withdrew before it was over. So what distinguished the men who made it through? Grit.
What else, other than grit, predicts success in the military, education, and business? In sales, I found that prior experience helps—novices are less likely to keep their jobs than those with experience. In the Chicago public school system, a supportive teacher made it more likely that students would graduate. And for aspiring Green Berets, baseline physical fitness at the start of training is essential.
But in each of these domains, when you compare people matched on these characteristics, grit still predicts success. Regardless of specific attributes and advantages that help someone succeed in each of these diverse domains of challenge, grit matters in all of them.
The year I started graduate school, the documentary Spellbound was released. The film follows three boys and five girls as they prepare for and compete in the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. To get to the finals—an adrenaline-filled three-day affair staged annually in Washington, DC, and broadcast live on ESPN, which normally focuses its programming on high-stakes sports matchups—these kids must first “outspell” thousands of other students from hundreds of schools across the country. This means spelling increasingly obscure words without a single error, in round after round, first besting all the other students in the contestant’s classroom, then in their grade, school, district, and region.
Spellbound got me wondering: To what extent is flawlessly spelling words like schottische and cymotrichous a matter of precocious verbal talent, and to what extent is grit at play?
I called the Bee’s executive director, a dynamic woman (and former champion speller herself) named Paige Kimble. Kimble was as curious as I was to learn more about the psychological makeup of winners. She agreed to send out questionnaires to all 273 spellers just as soon as they qualified for the finals, which would take place several months later. In return for the princely reward of a $25 gift card, about two-thirds of the spellers returned the questionnaires to my lab. The oldest respondent was fifteen years old, the absolute age limit according to competition rules, and the youngest was just seven.
In addition to completing the Grit Scale, spellers reported how much time they devoted to spelling practice. On average, they practiced more than an hour a day on weekdays and more than two hours a day on weekends. But there was a lot of variation around these averages: some spellers were hardly studying at all, and some were studying as much as nine hours on a given Saturday!
Separately, I contacted a subsample of spellers and administered a verbal intelligence test. As a group, the spellers demonstrated unusual verbal ability. But there was a fairly wide range of scores, with some kids scoring at the verbal prodigy level and others “average” for their age.
When ESPN aired the final rounds of the competition, I watched all the way through to the concluding suspenseful moments when, at last, thirteen-year-old Anurag Kashyap correctly spelled A-P-P-O-G-G-I-A-T-U-R-A (a musical term for a kind of grace note) to win the championship.
Then, with the final rankings in hand, I analyzed my data.
Here’s what I found: measurements of grit taken months before the final competition predicted how well spellers would eventually perform. Put simply, grittier kids went further in competition. How did they do it? By studying many more hours and, also, by competing in more spelling bees.
What about talent? Verbal intelligence also predicted getting further in competition. But there was no relationship at all between verbal IQ and grit. What’s more, verbally talented spellers did not study any more than less able spellers, nor did they have a longer track record of competition.
The separation of grit and talent emerged again in a separate study I ran on Ivy League undergraduates. There, SAT scores and grit were, in fact, inversely correlated. Students in that select sample who had higher SAT scores were, on average, just slightly less gritty than their peers. Putting together this finding with the other data I’d collected, I came to a fundamental insight that would guide my future work: Our potential is one thing. What we do with it is quite another.
Product details
- Publisher : Scribner; Reprint edition (August 21, 2018)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 368 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1501111116
- ISBN-13 : 978-1501111112
- Reading age : 5 years and up
- Item Weight : 12 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.38 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #493 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author
Dr Angela Duckworth is a 2013 MacArthur Fellow and an associate professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. She is an expert in non-IQ competencies, including grit and self-control. A highly sought-after international speaker, her TED talk on grit has been viewed by over 10 million people.
Duckworth’s hypothesis that the real guarantor of success may not be inborn talent but a special blend of resilience and single-mindedness grew out of her upbringing: as a child her scientist father lovingly bemoaned the fact his daughter was ‘no genius’. Duckworth was determined to prove him wrong and spent her youth smashing through every academic barrier. As an adult she became focused on proving her theory and to find out if grit can be learned or cultivated. It was out of this that she created her own Character Lab at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Customers find the book enjoyable and informative. They appreciate the solid research and well-reasoned conclusions. The writing quality is described as good, with a conversational style that's easy to read. The book explores the importance of grit and how to identify it. It also explores talent and perseverance as master differentiators in high achievers. Readers mention that resilient people don't quit.
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Customers find the book enjoyable to read and informative. They say it's well worth their time, delightful, and an invaluable read for their grandchildren. The author is articulate and gets them interested from page one to the very last page.
"...of interviews to psychologists, sport coaches, athletes, and top performers (from chefs and pottery makers to activists and CEOs) — so much so that..." Read more
"...Amanda Duckworth has written an excellent book. “GRIT” shows us the power of grit, its importance to reaching our potential, and how to grow it...." Read more
"...I had already read elsewhere -- but I still found both to be worthwhile reads. Part 2 looks at how we can grow grit “from within.”..." Read more
"...-the confluence of painful effort, feedback, and immense pleasure through deliberate practice (search youtube for rehearsals pre-TED talk)...." Read more
Customers find the book informative and engaging. They appreciate the solid research and well-reasoned conclusions. The author is a passionate academic researcher who gives many examples of deliberate practice and passion for what you do. The book has been very helpful to them personally, and it complements other powerful books like Mindset.
"...interests that later can grow into passions; practicing consistently to get better; finding a pro-social purpose for your efforts; and cultivating..." Read more
"...First, they were unusually resilient and hard-working. Second, they knew in a very, very deep way what it was they wanted...." Read more
"...The most interesting chapter to me was on parenting. The best parenting style according to most researchers and the successful people Duckworth has..." Read more
"...Dr. Duckworth for being a terrific writer, teacher, and example of this profound concept and having an impact far in excess of what I believe you..." Read more
Customers find the book well-written and easy to read. They appreciate the conversational style and how it's written for the common person. The author presents the work in a clear, concise manner. Readers praise the book as an excellent job from a first-time author.
"...to laypeople, Angela Duckworth succeeds brilliantly with this well-written and engaging book...." Read more
"...Nonetheless, it covers a fair range of ground in a readable and well-organized package, so is worth the price for a one-stop review or a first-read..." Read more
"...Thank you Dr. Duckworth for being a terrific writer, teacher, and example of this profound concept and having an impact far in excess of what I..." Read more
"...In essence: It’s the combination of intense passion + intense perseverance toward a long-term goal that matters to you...." Read more
Customers find the book helpful for exploring grit and how to develop it. They appreciate the author's review of evidence and anecdotes from her research. The book provides insights into grit, including how to identify it and improve it. Readers also appreciate the distinction between internal and external grit. Overall, they find the book informative and recommend it.
"...This book explores the importance of grit, how to identify it, how gritty are you, how to grow it, how to create a culture of grit, and how to..." Read more
"...Plus, she shares a bunch of inspiring stories about grit paragons while walking us through the key aspects of grit and teaching us how we can..." Read more
"...these stories of gritty people doing gritty things, you’ll learn how grit is formed, how it grows, and how you can develop more grit in your own..." Read more
"Pros: Provides compelling evidence that grit, rather than talent, is a key predictor of success; filled with fascinating stories of high..." Read more
Customers find the book insightful and informative. It provides clear examples of passion and perseverance as key differentiators for high-achievers. The author offers practical advice on developing discipline and character. The messages are delivered with compelling anecdotes that are seasoned with science and data. Overall, readers feel empowered by the book's message.
"...Duckworth also acknowledges the role of talent, which she includes in her formula for achievement (yes, there is such a thing in the book!) —..." Read more
"...than talent, is a key predictor of success; filled with fascinating stories of high achievers from various fields, making it both informative and..." Read more
"...Natural talent as the explanation of success, according to sociologist, Professor Dan Chambliss, “is perhaps the most pervasive lay explanation we..." Read more
"...the persistence to engage in deep practice, one can develop extraordinary levels of talent...." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's message about resilience. They find it an inspiring account of physical and mental achievement that emphasizes the importance of persistence, perseverance, and passion. The book starts well and finishes strong, with a solid account of what makes those who succeed. The prose is consistent and highly readable, challenging readers to push themselves out of their comfort zone.
"...First, they were unusually resilient and hard-working. Second, they knew in a very, very deep way what it was they wanted...." Read more
"...has two parts: passion (sticking to what is important to you) plus perseverance (the ability to get back up once you have fallen)...." Read more
"...list of the concepts and legends that you will meet: flow, hope, resiliency, fixed vs. growth mindset, learned optimism, Sisu, talent (overrated),..." Read more
"...First, these exemplars were unusually resilient and hardworking. Second, they knew in a very, very deep way what it was they wanted...." Read more
Customers have mixed reviews about the story quality. Some find it engaging with interesting stories and case studies, weaving through a wonderful narrative. They appreciate the actionable insights and examples, including the experiences of West Point cadets. However, others feel the anecdotes are too short and not well-developed, and the themes and messages seem repetitive.
"...while making them interesting and relevant to readers through many personal stories, examples, and literally dozens of interviews to psychologists,..." Read more
"...The most interesting chapter to me was on parenting...." Read more
"...Cons: • Repetitive Themes: you might find the themes and messages a bit repetitive throughout the book" Read more
"...She shares many examples and case studies, including the experiences of West Point cadets, and NFL players for the Seattle Seahawks under the..." Read more
Customers find the book engaging and interesting. However, some readers find it boring, lacking practical examples, and dry to read.
"...shines in accurately presenting research findings while making them interesting and relevant to readers through many personal stories, examples, and..." Read more
"...My last issue with the book is the shameless self promotion. Obviously Ms Duckworth is very successful and she’s proud of what she does...." Read more
"...The stories of people with the ability to persist are lively and interesting, but the overall feeling is of reading small vignette style biographies..." Read more
"...high achievers from various fields, making it both informative and entertaining Cons: •..." Read more
Reviews with images
Amazing body of work on a topic we *think* we already know...
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2016This is a wonderful journey at the cutting edge of the psychology of achievement. The author, Angela Duckworth, is the lead researcher of a 14-year long (and counting) intensive and focused effort to reverse engineer top performers. In this book she shares with readers the characteristic that distinguishes the excellent from the merely good, and how to foster it.
It turns out that people who excel in their profession, whether athletes or salespeople, teachers or students, Special Forces officers or Spelling Bee finalists, all share one common trait: grit, defined as passion and perseverance for long term goals. Grit is the ability to keep going despite setbacks and to work hard at something for a very long period of time.
The author clearly distinguishes between the psychology of achievement (i.e., the traits shared by high-achievers) and success (which involves many other factors, such as opportunity and sometimes just plain luck). Duckworth also acknowledges the role of talent, which she includes in her formula for achievement (yes, there is such a thing in the book!) — she just thinks that talent without effort does not take you very far; and she has data to show that less talented but more gritty people in the long run outperform talented but non-gritty people.
The book is structured in three parts: the first part explains what grit is and why it matters; the second part explains how to grow grit from the inside out (this would be the self-help part; more specifically, you will learn how to develop grit by going through the following stages: developing interests that later can grow into passions; practicing consistently to get better; finding a pro-social purpose for your efforts; and cultivating optimism); the third part suggests how to grow grit from the outside in (so it is aimed at parents, coaches, teachers and organizational leaders; with chapters such as “parenting for grit” and “a culture of grit”).
The book shines in accurately presenting research findings while making them interesting and relevant to readers through many personal stories, examples, and literally dozens of interviews to psychologists, sport coaches, athletes, and top performers (from chefs and pottery makers to activists and CEOs) — so much so that the book feels like a team effort that gives flesh and blood to the science.
In an age when bestsellers are based on two or three studies, it is refreshing to see someone work so grittily for more than a decade piling up study after study (see: [...]) on the same topic before writing a book; and whereas many experts struggle to explain their insights to laypeople, Angela Duckworth succeeds brilliantly with this well-written and engaging book.
In conclusion, if you are looking for a self-help quick fix or a “life hack” you will be disappointed: this book is about the daily grind in the long-term pursuit of excellence. But if you are looking for science-based ways to help you thrive and make something out of your life; or if you are a leader, a coach or an educator who wants to foster a culture of excellence where human potential is nurtured and developed — then this book is for you.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2016Amanda Duckworth’s “GRIT” is the answer for those seeking the secret to personal fulfillment and success. The secret is Grit, the passion and perseverance for long term goals. She makes her case by connecting the dots of psychological research with her own contemporary research to the stories of many people who have had remarkably successful lives. This book explores the importance of grit, how to identify it, how gritty are you, how to grow it, how to create a culture of grit, and how to instill grit into your children.
Duckworth’s interest in personal fulfillment and success began with her first job as a grade school teacher. She noticed some of her students to be more inherently gifted with numbers than others. But not all of these capable students to her surprise got the best grades. And those who did weren’t always “math people”: for the most part, they were those who consistently invested more time and effort in their work. She decided to become a research psychologist to figure out what explained the difference in the students.
Duckworth had been “distracted by talent.” Gifted people reach a point where the talent is not enough. Author Jim Loehr (“The Power of Engagement” and the “The Power of Story”) had a similar epiphany early in his career and has leveraged this understanding to become a highly paid professional coach to athletes, executives, and government officials.
She is a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania and has spent the last 10 years studying why some people have extraordinary success and others do not. One of her first studies as a researcher was that of West Point cadets. She wanted to find out “Why did 20% of the cadets drop out before graduation?” These cadets were admitted to West Point by getting a high “Whole Candidate Score” which was a composite measure of ACT and SAT scores, high school rank, leadership potential, and physical fitness. The score which is essentially a measure of innate ability did not predict who would drop out. A Grit Scale (“I finish whatever I begin” or “new ideas and projects sometimes distract me from previous ones”) emerged with Grit turning out to be an astoundingly reliable predictor of who made it through, and who did not.
The book is loaded with gems that are sure to satisfy all who seek personal fulfillment and happiness.
' Our obsession with talent creates self-imposed limits and distracts us from the truth. We believe those naturally talented to be more likely to succeed. This bias is a hidden prejudice against those who’ve achieved what they have because they worked for it, and a hidden preference for those whom we think arrived at their place in life because they were naturals. This bias is evident in the choices we make.
' The highly successful had kind of a ferocious determination that played out in two ways. First, they were unusually resilient and hard-working. Second, they knew in a very, very deep way what it was they wanted. They not only had determination, they had direction.
' There’s a big difference between “this is all I can do” to “who knows what I can do?” Consider those disabled who have overcome their physical or mental limitations to achieve more that many who have no disabilities.
' Exceptional individuals push themselves to the extremes of use of their assets and resources.
' The “War for Talent” is an empty war based on a false premise. It should be recast as a war for the grittiest!
' Passion is a compass but it does not arrive like a lightning bolt. It takes some time to build, tinker with, and finally get right, and be a guide for the long and winding road to where, ultimately, you want to be.
' In assessing grit along with other virtues, the author found three reliable clusters: the intrapersonal (self-control, avoiding temptation); the interpersonal (gratitude, social intelligence, and self-control over emotions like anger); and the intellectual (curiosity, zest , active and open engagement with the world).
' Goodness must be a partner with grit. Morality trumps all other aspects of character and importance.
Amanda Duckworth has written an excellent book. “GRIT” shows us the power of grit, its importance to reaching our potential, and how to grow it. We can grow grit “from inside out”: we can cultivate our interests and discover our passion. We can connect our work to a purpose beyond ourselves... And we can learn to hope when all seems lost.
GRIT - the marathon of life and our happiness depends tremendously on it.
Top reviews from other countries
- KCSReviewed in Canada on December 1, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Wish I had this book when I was 15 or 20 [now I’m 73]
Great book, well documented, eye opening.
I wish I had this book when I was 15 or 20 [now I’m 73].
I’ve had a great life and a lot of success, the concepts in this book might have made it easier. I have no doubt that grit played a large role in my successes, but with this book as a 15 year old the development of my grit would have been smoother and sooner.
- ALEJANDRA LORENA RODRIGUEZ DELGADOReviewed in Mexico on August 25, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars LIBRO
EXCELENTE
- Kindle CustomerReviewed in Brazil on December 31, 2021
5.0 out of 5 stars Thia book will help you as a professional and as a parent
The tone of the book is very informative and not "you must do this". The reading will present you an experiment and comment on it.
At the end you will not have a step by step guide to become grit or more successful. Instead you will have a lot of tools and ways to see how people improved and act on situations.
What you will do with it is up to you.
I strongly recommend the reading for those who will enter in parenthood.
- H. SebastianReviewed in Germany on October 15, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars What it takes
On more than 400 pages or 13 chapters, the author takes on a journey on what „grit“ means, on how to grow it and apply it to your life. The first part of the book explains what grit means, that talent can distract while effort counts twice. Mrs. Duckworth explains how to measure grit, also scientifically, that great deeds come out of consistent practices, exercises etc. which is often experienced as „talent“ (see great achievements in sports), which makes it easier to process for the spectator.
Being a parent of two young kids, I especially liked the third part on how growing grit inside your house / family / surroundings, how to train your kids, not being the enabler for them, but supporting them in their decision and coaxing them on following a regular hobby (like playing an instrument, doing certain sports...), especially setting rules on keeping this activity for a certain amount of time.
What I really liked about the book is the connection to other literature I read in the past years, e.g. the the often cited growth mindset (read the book by Dr. Carol Dweck, you can also check my review), consistent habit building, leaving your comfort zone, constant life-long learning etc. This approach might resp. will collide with certain mindsets like the famous „work-life-balance“ (which lies, as perceived by a lot of persons on the life side instead of being a dynamic balance), but I am a great fan of the thoughts presented. I really liked the very detailed notes section, the writing style, the small personal anecdotes of Mrs. Duckworth, I can totally recommend this book.
H. Sebastian
Reviewed in Germany on October 15, 2024
Being a parent of two young kids, I especially liked the third part on how growing grit inside your house / family / surroundings, how to train your kids, not being the enabler for them, but supporting them in their decision and coaxing them on following a regular hobby (like playing an instrument, doing certain sports...), especially setting rules on keeping this activity for a certain amount of time.
What I really liked about the book is the connection to other literature I read in the past years, e.g. the the often cited growth mindset (read the book by Dr. Carol Dweck, you can also check my review), consistent habit building, leaving your comfort zone, constant life-long learning etc. This approach might resp. will collide with certain mindsets like the famous „work-life-balance“ (which lies, as perceived by a lot of persons on the life side instead of being a dynamic balance), but I am a great fan of the thoughts presented. I really liked the very detailed notes section, the writing style, the small personal anecdotes of Mrs. Duckworth, I can totally recommend this book.
Images in this review - Romy FroemerReviewed in the United Kingdom on September 8, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars excellent, well-written, engaging food for thought
I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and I will continue to ponder its content for years to come. It has already inspired me to increase the amount of deliberate practice in my life. Who knew, doing the hard thing brought me a lot of joy.