Summary
Preface
The author shares the fact that she grew up in a Chinese immigrant household with a father who prized intellect and talent above anything else. There was very little that Duckworth felt she could do to impress him. Her father frequently told her, âYou know, youâre no genius,â and she internalized these put-downs. In school, she didnât test highly enough for the gifted and talented program. Never feeling like she was particularly brilliant or skilled, she got by with hard work, dedication, and a commitment to everything she took on, eventually graduating from excellent universities. But it was only when she won a MacArthur Fellowshipâoften called a âgenius grantââthat she had her light-bulb moment. She looked back on what had gotten her to where she wasâa distinguished professor of psychology and a scholar who had attended some of the top schools in the worldâand realized that so-called âgeniusâ had little to do with it. It was about character. She knew she had a calling and she challenged herself every day. âI may not be the smartest person in the room, but I strive to be the grittiest,â she says.
Chapter 1: Showing Up
One of the most important characteristics of grit is refusing to quit. A gritty person shows up and sticks to the task at hand, no matter how hard it gets. Itâs that ânever give upâ attitude that determines who stays in the race. This chapter starts with a description of what West Point cadets go through in their first months at the military academy. Theyâve already reached high levels of academic achievement, with top scores on their SATs and ACTs. Theyâve trained hard and passed the required physicals. Theyâve gotten the glowing recommendations of congressmen and senators and beaten out more than 14,000 applicants in the admissions process. Only 1,200 are admitted and enrolled, and yet one in five of these high achievers drops out before graduation. In fact, most of those who quit do so during their first summer, when they must go through a rigorous seven-week training program known as Beast Barracksâor just Beastâwith days of drills, marching, and calisthenics that begin at 5 a.m. and end at 10 p.m.
For generations, psychologists and West Point leaders had struggled to figure out why some of these impressive people got through that period and others quit. Examining what it takes to make it through Beast, and many other career challenges, Duckworth develops the Grit Scale, a test designed to rate the level of perseverance and passion of an individual. In 2004, West Point cadets were given the test, asked to agree or disagree with statements such as âI finish whatever I begin,â and â[My] interests change from year to year.â By the end of the Beast training, a pattern emerged: Those with the grittiest answers made it through.
Need to Know: The Grit Scale became an accurate predictor of success when applied to employees in sales, a profession where rejection is a daily, if not hourly, experience. It also worked for juniors in a Chicago public high school, Green Berets, and Scripps National Spelling Bee contestants. The conclusion? âOur potential is one thing. What we do with it is quite another.â
Chapter 2: Distracted by Talent
Examining some of the earliest treatises on what makes some people successful and others not, Duckworth cites a discussion between the founder of evolutionary theory, Charles Darwin, and his half cousin, Francis Galton. In 1869, Galton wrote a paper concluding that high achievers were remarkable for their combination of ability, zeal, and capacity for hard labor. Darwin agreed (although he actually considered natural talent to be the least important aspect of success). In 1907, psychologist William James furthered this hypothesis, making the observation that there is a gap between our potential and our achievementsâwe have the inner resources and intellect but we donât work at the optimum level. Those few who do put in the effort to push their innate powers to the outer extremes, however, are very successful.
Duckworthâs point is that this notion is nothing new, and yet weâve allowed ourselves to become sidetracked by talent, favoring the gifted over the strivers. She first noticed the importance of striving after she quit her job at McKinsey, a global management consulting firm, to teach middle school math to inner-city students. She noticed that the kids who didnât grasp the mathematical formulas right away ultimately fared better in terms of grades than many of the more naturally gifted students. This surprised her, leading her to examine why those with less natural aptitud...