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Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance Hardcover – May 3, 2016
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Drawing on her own powerful story as the daughter of a scientist who frequently noted her lack of “genius,” Duckworth, now a celebrated researcher and professor, describes her early eye-opening stints in teaching, business consulting, and neuroscience, which led to the hypothesis that what really drives success is not “genius” but a unique combination of passion and long-term perseverance.
In Grit, she takes readers 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.
Among Grit’s most valuable insights:
*Why any effort you make ultimately counts twice toward your goal
*How grit can be learned, regardless of I.Q. or circumstances
*How lifelong interest is triggered
*How much of optimal practice is suffering and how much ecstasy
*Which is better for your child—a warm embrace or high standards
*The magic of the Hard Thing Rule
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.
- Print length352 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherScribner
- Publication dateMay 3, 2016
- Dimensions6 x 1.2 x 9 inches
- ISBN-101501111108
- ISBN-13978-1501111105
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Editorial Reviews
Review
One of "The Hottest Spring Nonfiction Books"
—The Wall Street Journal
A "Leadership Book to Watch for in 2016"
—The Washington Post
A "Must-Read Business Book for 2016"
—Forbes
One of "The Year's Best Life Hacks"
—Glamour
"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
"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
“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
“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
“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
"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
"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
“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”
"Engaging...With strong appeal for readers of Daniel H. Pink, Malcolm Gladwell, and Susan Cain, this is a must-have."
—Booklist
“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
"An informative and inspiring contribution to the literature of success."
—Publishers Weekly
“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
"[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
“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
"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
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Scribner; 1st edition (May 3, 2016)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1501111108
- ISBN-13 : 978-1501111105
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1.2 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #9,730 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #16 in Popular Applied Psychology
- #39 in Popular Psychology Personality Study
- #273 in Success Self-Help
- Customer Reviews:
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An uplifting book on how to come back from setbacks.
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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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So, what is this book about?
According to bestselling author Stephen King, “Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” I don’t know about you, but I didn’t always understand this. I used to believe that talent alone determines success—that if you have enough talent, you can be successful in something, and if you don’t have enough talent, you won’t succeed. Psychologist Angela Duckworth sets out to disprove this mistaken notion in her book. When you want to achieve an important goal, talent only gets you started. What keeps you going is a combination of passion and perseverance that Duckworth calls “grit.” For those of you who worry that you don’t have much grit (I’m talking to myself), good news: grit can grow. This book shows you how.
How difficult is the subject matter?
Duckworth is a psychologist, so naturally a lot of the material for Grit draws from her own research in the field as well as from the work of other psychologists and social scientists. However, you need not fear that this book is a bunch of statistics and clinical studies thrown together with some text. For Duckworth, the subject of grit and how it can help people thrive is her personal passion, so she shares much of what she has learned in a very approachable way: through stories. Inspiring stories about people from many different backgrounds, including West Point cadets, National Spelling Bee finalists, the women’s soccer coach at UNC Chapel Hill, a potter in Minnesota, a New York Times journalist in Kenya, the Seattle Seahawks, and students Duckworth herself used to work with when she taught seventh-grade math in New York’s Lower East Side. From 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 life and work.
How can this book help me in my daily work?
The subject of this book is too big to apply only to your daily work, in my opinion. Grit is a mindset encompassing one’s entire outlook on life. So if you are seeking specific practices for improving specific aspects of your work, this book will not be much help. But I believe this book can definitely help you, whatever your goals and responsibilities are, if you want to become a grittier person. And being grittier can certainly help improve your work performance.
What’s the main takeaway?
Duckworth sums it up like this: “Our potential is one thing. What we do with it is quite another.” In other words, talent is overrated; grit, a combination of passion and perseverance, is a better determinant of success.
What are some key nuggets?
Grit is chock-full of great nuggets! Here are a few:
• “In my view, the biggest reason a preoccupation with talent can be harmful is simple: By shining our spotlight on talent, we risk leaving everything else in the shadows. We inadvertently send the message that these other factors—including grit—don’t matter as much as they really do.”
• “From the very beginning to the very end, it is inestimably important to learn to keep going even when things are difficult, even when we have doubts. At various points, in big ways and small, we get knocked down. If we stay down, grit loses. If we get up, grit prevails.”
• “How you see your work is more important than your job title. And this means that you can go from job to career to calling—all without changing your occupation.”
• “When you keep searching for ways to change your situation for the better, you stand a chance of finding them. When you stop searching, assuming they can’t be found, you guarantee they won’t.”
• “The bottom line on culture and grit is: If you want to be grittier, find a gritty culture and join it. If you’re a leader, and you want the people in your organization to be grittier, create a gritty culture.”
Any caveats?
This book is not a best practices guide per se; as I said earlier, it’s about an overarching mindset. Rather than giving specific techniques, what it gives instead are insights into how you can develop a mindset of grittiness. You won’t get instant results. You’ll have to show up every day and rise every time you fall down. You’ll have to face a lot of resistance—mainly your own. But if you put in consistent effort over time and don’t give up, you’ll be a grittier person than you were before, and who knows what you’ll achieve?
Personal note:
It’s been about a month since I first read Grit, and I can report that I have grown a little grittier already. I still struggle a lot with inner resistance and the temptation to give up when things turn out to be harder than I anticipated; I’m sure these struggles will always be present to some extent. However, lately I’ve become more self-aware and often catch myself before I’m about to procrastinate or give up. I tell myself that gritty people keep going, and then I dust myself off and do my best to keep going.
However, those who stayed and those who dropped out during the Beast, had indistinguishable scores. Both the Army and Dr. Duckworth were perplexed by the question: “Who spends two years trying to get into a place and then drops out in the first two months?”
What emerged from Duckworth’s work on the problem was the Grit Scale—a test that measures the extent to which you approach life with grit. Grit turned out to be an astoundingly reliable predictor of who made it through and who did not.
The Grit Scale was tested with sales people, among others, who are subject to the daily hardship of rejection. In an experiment involving hundreds of men and women who sold vacation time-share, Grit predicted who stayed and who left. Similar results were found in other demanding professions such as education.
“I came to a fundamental insight that would guide my future work,” explains Duckworth. “Our potential is one thing. What we do with it is quite another.”
Natural talent as the explanation of success, according to sociologist, Professor Dan Chambliss, “is perhaps the most pervasive lay explanation we have for athletic success.” However, his research led him to the conclusion that the minimal talent needed to succeed, is lower than most of us think.
“Without effort, your talent is nothing more than your unmet potential. Without effort, your skill is nothing more than what you could have done but didn’t. With effort, talent becomes skill, and effort makes skill productive.”
Grammy Award–winning musician and Oscar-nominated actor, Will Smith, says of himself: “I’ve never really viewed myself as particularly talented. Where I excel is a ridiculous, sickening work ethic.”
Too many of us, it appears, give up far too early and far too often.
Duckworth’s research has led her to the conclusion that Grit has four components: interest, practice, passion, and hope.
According to the meta-analysis of sixty studies conducted over the past sixty years, employees whose personal interests fit with their occupations, do their jobs better, are more helpful to their co-workers, and stay at their jobs longer.
Of course, just because you love something doesn’t mean you will excel at it. Many people are poor at the things they love. Many of the Grit paragons interviewed by Duckworth spent years exploring several different interests before discovering the one that eventually came to occupy all of their waking thoughts. “While we might envy those who love what they do for a living, we shouldn’t assume that they started from a different place than the rest of us. Chances are, they took quite some time figuring out exactly what they wanted to do with their lives,” she explains.
The second requirement of Grit is practice. Numerous interviews of Grit paragons revealed that they are all committed to continuous improvement. There are no exceptions. This continuous improvement leads to a gradual improvement of their skills over years.
“That there’s a learning curve for skill development isn’t surprising. But the timescale on which that development happens is,” Duckworth discovered. Anders Ericsson’s work with a German music academy revealed that those who excelled, practised about 10,000 hours over ten years before achieving elite levels of expertise. The less accomplished practised half as much.
Ericsson’s crucial insight is not that experts practice much more, but that they practice very deliberately. Experts are more interested in correcting what they do wrong rather than what they did right, until conscious incompetence becomes unconscious competence.
Dancer Martha Graham says “Dancing appears glamorous, easy, delightful. But the path to the paradise of that achievement is not easier than any other. There is fatigue so great that the body cries even in its sleep. There are times of complete frustration. There are daily small deaths.”
Gritty people do more deliberate practice than others.
The third component of Grit is purpose, the desire to contribute to the well-being of others. If Grit starts with a relatively self-oriented interest to which self-disciplined practice is added, the end point is integrating that work with an other-centred purpose.
“The long days and evenings of toil, the setbacks and disappointments and struggle, the sacrifice—all this is worth it because, ultimately, their efforts pay dividends to other people,” Duckworth identified. Most Gritty people saw their ultimate aims as deeply connected to the world beyond themselves.
The bricklayer may have a job laying bricks so he can pay for food. He may later see bricklaying as his career, and later still as a calling to build beautiful homes for people. It is this last group who seem most satisfied with their jobs and their lives overall, and missed at least a third fewer days of work than those with merely a job or a career as opposed to a calling.
The final component of Grit is hope, but a different kind to the “hopium” many embrace. It is the expectation that our own efforts can improve our future. The hope that creates Grit has nothing to do with luck, so failure is a cue to try harder, rather than as confirmation that one lacks ability.
The book also includes chapters on developing Gritty children, sports teams, and companies.
It is a book for those who relish solid research and well-reasoned conclusions. It is highly motivational, in a mature and thoughtful way. Get the book. Work it, and share the knowledge. It could be transformative.
Readability Light ---+- Serious
Insights High +---- Low
Practical High -+--- Low
*Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy and is the author of Strategy that Works.
Top reviews from other countries
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.
Her research adds something important to the repertoire of positive psychology, a solid core to achieve a goal in life. It is more substantial than the hollow concept of happiness. Grit is an antidote for those who feel lesser talented; studies show that with hard work and perseverance they can trump the more talented. Duckworth provided a new vision for dropout problem in schools, especially in the developed world. There was nothing wrong with the school and the teachers, rather the problem was the ‘character’ of the students dropping out: disregard for norms and carelessness to work.
Passion, Duckworth says, is working toward goal in abiding, loyal and steady way. Grit allows one to be at the top level for a long time, and is accompanied by feeling of joy. Grittier people experience more flow. Let me propose that they develop qualities of people engaging in nishkama karma. One remains in problem solving mode, so improving his/her skill, choosing goals after thorough deliberations.
Grittier children, research says, work harder and enjoy it. This is startling, cherishing rewards of labour. More astonishing is the finding that people suffering set-backs, when engage in some work with passion and greater effort, not only are able to bear the pain, they excel from normal people. The hope for these people lies in their expectation that “our own efforts can improve our future.” This finding of Duckworth supports the work of her mentor Martin Seligman, a pioneer in helplessness theory of depression, and today leading the positive psychology movement. Those who are not ready to give up in face of formidable problems, have key to success in their cognition. In other words, it is learning from adversity in life.
Above all, Duckworth through her impeccable researches, narrated beautifully in the book, shows that grit allows one feel that “one can really change.” It is a novel way towards “growth mindsets.” If I may conclude, my karma, the effort I put to my work, is my life.