She presently studies self-control and grit as a distinguished professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, the same university in which she studied. Her book, Grit, distills what she has learned about the importance of effort to the attainment of success. It solves the mystery of why some people can work harder and longer while others fall to the wayside.
As suggested by the title of the book, Grit, a combination of passion and resilience, is the main idea behind the book.
“Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare.”
“Our potential is one thing. What we do with it is quite another.”
Angela Duckworth defines Grit as a combination of passion, feeling intimately driven towards a specific achievement, or rather, the ability to pursue one goal over time, and perseverance, the ability to overcome challenges, put in the work, and to finish the things you start. She notes that passion and enthusiasm are not the same; passion is endurance.
“....Grit is about working on something you care about so much that you're willing to stay loyal to it...it's doing what you love, but not just falling in love―staying in love.”
Grit is a predictor of success. Given two people who have the same amount of talent but where one is grittier, the grittier person will be more successful. This does not negate the importance of IQ or talent. On the contrary, Angela notes that both IQ and talent are important success factors. However, on their own, they are insufficient success/achievement catalysts.
To get the most of IQ or talent, you must couple it with GRIT, passionate and consistent hard work over time. If you lack talent or a high IQ but have an undying passion for your aim/work and the ability to work and persevere through everything, you are far more likely to succeed—vis-a-vis someone who has talent or high IQ but is not a diligent worker.
“As much as talent counts, effort counts twice.”
On the importance of Grit, from her interviews with a broad spectrum of successful people including writers, athletes, musicians, and politicians, Angela Duckworth created two equations that show the important relationship between talent and effort and why effort trumps talent.
She noted that to achieve any aim, you need the right set of skill. Mastery or achievement, which is the measure of true success, comes from practicing the skills after the fact.
Being a self-development book, Grit by Angela Duckworth is both data-centric and actionable. She goes out of her way to illustrate how anyone can become grittier. She does this by mentioning that grit has four main characteristics.
(1) Interest, a deep love for what you are doing/pursuing and (2) Practice, improving bit by bit so “…that doing one thing better and better might be more satisfying than staying an amateur at many different things….” (3) Purpose, a strong belief in the importance of what you are doing, and (4) hope, believing that you will overcome challenges that arise as you pursue and practice your interests and purpose.
“I won’t just have a job; I’ll have a calling. I’ll challenge myself every day. When I get knocked down, I’ll get back up. I may not be the smartest person in the room, but I’ll strive to be the grittiest.”
Grit develops as we go about living life, learning important lessons that mold our beliefs and philosophies, from overcoming challenges and dealing with failures and disappointments, a principle she dubs the maturity principle, of which she notes:
“Over time, we learn life lessons we don’t forget, and we adapt in response to the growing demands of our circumstances. Eventually, new ways of thinking and acting become habitual. There comes a day when we can hardly remember our immature former selves. We have adapted, those adaptations have become durable, and, finally, our identity—the sort of person we see ourselves to be—has evolved. We’ve matured.”
Grit is an invaluable asset that we can all learn to develop, as long as we take it a step at a time.
“At the start of an endeavor, we need encouragement and freedom to figure out what we enjoy. We need small wins. We need applause. Yes, we can handle a tincture of criticism and corrective feedback. Yes, we need to practice. But not too much and not too soon. Rush a beginner and you’ll bludgeon their budding interest. It’s very, very hard to get that back once you do.”