Grit: Complete Summary of Angela Duckworth’s Framework for Passion and Perseverance

Angela Duckworth’s seminal book, “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance,” challenges the conventional wisdom that innate talent is the sole predictor of success. Drawing on decades of psychological research, compelling real-world stories, and her own unique personal experiences, Duckworth argues that grit—a combination of passion and perseverance for long-term goals—is a far more reliable indicator of achievement. This book provides a blueprint for understanding what grit is, why it matters, and crucially, how it can be cultivated both from within and through external influences.

This summary will delve into Duckworth’s core insights, explore her two-part formula for achievement (talent x effort = skill; skill x effort = achievement), and reveal how individuals can develop their own grit through fostering interest, embracing deliberate practice, cultivating purpose, and sustaining hope. It also examines the vital role of parenting and culture in nurturing grit in individuals and organizations. Readers will gain actionable strategies to become more motivated, passionate, and persistent in their work, school, and personal lives, ultimately helping them realize their full potential and achieve enduring success.

Introduction: What This Book Is About

Angela Duckworth introduces “Grit” by recounting her father’s frequent pronouncement that she was “no genius,” a statement that deeply influenced her early life and research. Despite this, she later received a MacArthur Fellowship, often called the “genius grant,” for her groundbreaking work on grit. This personal irony highlights her central thesis: success is often more about passion and perseverance than innate talent.

The book is structured to explain this phenomenon, providing scientific evidence and practical insights into how grit can be grown. Duckworth emphasizes that grit is not a fixed trait but a mutable quality that can be developed over time. She aims to summarize everything she has learned about this vital characteristic, offering a roadmap for cultivating sustained effort and unwavering direction in one’s pursuits.

Part I: What Grit Is and Why It Matters

This section lays the groundwork for understanding grit, defining its components and demonstrating its predictive power across various challenging domains. Duckworth introduces her core formula for achievement and provides a self-assessment tool.

Chapter 1: Showing Up

This chapter introduces grit through the challenging environment of the United States Military Academy at West Point. Each year, 14,000 applicants begin the rigorous admissions process, winnowed down to 1,200 admitted cadets. Despite this highly selective process, one in five cadets drop out before graduation, with a significant fraction leaving during the intense seven-week Beast Barracks training.

The West Point Challenge

Beast Barracks is described as “the most physically and emotionally demanding part of your four years at West Point.” It features 5:00 a.m. wake-ups, nonstop physical training, classroom instruction, weapons training, and organized athletics, with no weekends or breaks. The program is specifically designed to help cadets transition from new cadet to Soldier by pushing them beyond their perceived limits. Historically, psychologists struggled to predict who would succeed.

Talent vs. Grit at West Point

Duckworth’s research in 2004 found that West Point’s primary admissions metric, the Whole Candidate Score (a weighted average of SAT/ACT scores, high school rank, leadership potential, and physical fitness), did not reliably predict who would make it through Beast. Cadets with the highest scores were just as likely to drop out as those with the lowest. Instead, grit emerged as an astoundingly reliable predictor of who would persist. This finding highlighted that talent is no guarantee of grit, and vice versa.

Grit in Diverse Domains

Duckworth extended her research beyond West Point to other demanding fields:

• Sales: In a vacation time-share company, 55% of salespeople left within six months. Grit predicted who stayed, outperforming other personality traits like extroversion or conscientiousness.
• Chicago Public Schools: Among high school juniors, grittier students were more likely to graduate on schedule (only 12% failed to graduate). Grit was a stronger predictor than student care for school or feeling safe.
• Higher Education: Grittier adults were more likely to earn graduate degrees (MBA, PhD, MD, JD) and persist through challenging programs like community colleges, which have dropout rates as high as 80%.
• Army Special Operations Forces (Green Berets): In the grueling Special Forces Selection Course, where 42% voluntarily withdraw, grit distinguished those who made it through.

In each case, even after controlling for other contributing factors like prior experience, supportive teachers, or baseline physical fitness, grit consistently predicted success. This suggests that while specific attributes matter, grit is universally important across diverse challenges.

Chapter 2: Distracted by Talent

Duckworth explores how a preoccupation with talent can distract from the critical role of effort in achieving success. Her personal experience as a math teacher, particularly at Lowell High School, highlighted this distinction.

The Classroom Revelation

As a seventh-grade math teacher, Duckworth observed that some students picked up concepts easily, yet their grades were often lackluster. Conversely, students who initially struggled but were “overachievers” consistently performed better than expected dueably to hard work. This revealed that “aptitude did not guarantee achievement”, and talent for math was different from excelling in math class. She realized she had been “distracted by talent.”

David Luong’s Story

David Luong, a quiet freshman in Duckworth’s regular algebra class at Lowell High, initially didn’t stand out. Despite being deemed “not ready” for accelerated math, David consistently submitted perfect work, aced quizzes, and asked for harder assignments. This demonstrated an exceptional work ethic rather than innate brilliance. He eventually transferred to the accelerated track, faced initial difficulties (including a D on his first geometry test), but persevered, graduating with dual degrees in engineering and economics and earning a PhD in mechanical engineering from UCLA, ultimately becoming a “rocket scientist”. His story illustrates that “aptitude tests can get a lot of things wrong.”

Historical Perspectives on Achievement

Duckworth delves into historical debates about talent:

• Francis Galton, a child prodigy and Darwin’s cousin, studied high achievers and concluded they possessed unusual “ability,” exceptional “zeal,” and “the capacity for hard labor.”
• Charles Darwin disagreed, stating, “men did not differ much in intellect, only in zeal and hard work.” Darwin, himself a “plodder” rather than a lightning-flash genius, emphasized his “power of observation and the assiduousness with which he applied it.”
• William James in “The Energies of Men” observed that most individuals live “far within his limits” and “energizes below his maximum.” He argued that the outer boundaries of improvement are irrelevant for most, as they are “at the very beginning of their journey.”

The Naturalness Bias

Surveys show Americans prioritize effort over talent for success. However, psychologist Chia-Jung Tsay’s research reveals a hidden prejudice:

• When musicians evaluated pianists with identical biographies and performances, those described as “naturals” were judged more likely to succeed and more hirable than “strivers.”
• The same bias appeared in entrepreneurship; “naturals” were preferred even when “strivers” had significantly more experience or capital.
• This “naturalness bias” is a “hidden prejudice against those who’ve achieved what they have because they worked for it,” suggesting what we say we value may differ from what we truly believe.

The Downside of Overemphasizing Talent

Duckworth argues that focusing solely on talent is harmful because it “risks leaving everything else in the shadows,” inadvertently suggesting other factors like grit don’t matter.

• Enron, which epitomized a “talent mindset” promoted by McKinsey, became a narcissistic culture that encouraged short-term performance and deception, ultimately leading to the largest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history.
• Scott Barry Kaufman’s story illustrates this: labeled a “slow learner” with learning disabilities and low IQ scores, he was told he had “no real future.” A teacher who believed in his potential helped him pivot from “This is all you can do” to “Who knows what you can do?” He later excelled academically, became a psychologist, and proved that effort can overcome perceived talent limitations.

The conclusion is that while talent is a good thing, its overemphasis can prevent individuals from realizing their full potential by neglecting the power of effort.

Chapter 3: Effort Counts Twice

Duckworth introduces her core theory of achievement, asserting that effort is so powerful it “counts twice” in the equation for success. She challenges the societal tendency to reflexively attribute success to “talent.”

The Mundanity of Excellence

Sociologist Dan Chambliss’s study of Olympic swimmers, “The Mundanity of Excellence,” found that “superlative performance is really a confluence of dozens of small skills or activities,” each learned and drilled into habit. There’s nothing “extraordinary or superhuman” in individual actions; excellence comes from them being “done consistently and correctly, and all together.”

• Chambliss observed that “talent” is often a “lay explanation” when the effort and practice behind performance aren’t visible.
• He also pointed out that the minimum talent needed to succeed in swimming is lower than most think, and that “greatness is doable” through the accretion of mundane acts.

Nietzsche on Genius and Craftsmanship

Duckworth turns to philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche to understand why we prefer to see genius as magical:

• Nietzsche wrote, “With everything perfect… we rejoice in the present fact as though it came out of the ground by magic.” We don’t ask how it came to be, because “wherever one can see the act of becoming one grows somewhat cool.”
• He argued that “Our vanity, our self-love, promotes the cult of the genius,” because if success is magical, “we are not obliged to compare ourselves and find ourselves lacking.” This allows us to “relax into the status quo.”
• Nietzsche implored us to see exemplars as “craftsmen” who possess “seriousness of the efficient workman” and “allowed themselves time for it, because they took more pleasure in making the little, secondary things well than in the effect of a dazzling whole.”

The Theory of Achievement

After being challenged by her advisor, Marty Seligman, to develop a theory for the psychology of achievement, Duckworth formulated two simple equations:

1. Talent x Effort = Skill
2. Skill x Effort = Achievement

This theory posits that effort factors into the calculations twice.

• Effort builds skill: Talent is the rate at which skills improve when effort is invested. Without effort, talent is just unmet potential.
• Effort makes skill productive: Achievement is what happens when acquired skills are used. Without effort, skill is just what “you could have done but didn’t.”

Examples of Effort Counting Twice

• Warren MacKenzie (Potter): At 92, he still throws clay daily. Effort improved his skill in making beautiful pots, and the same effort also increased the number of good pots he produced over his lifetime, leading to greater achievement.
• John Irving (Novelist): Despite being “not a natural” writer (C- in high school English, dyslexic, 475 SAT verbal score), he became one of the most prolific writers in history. His secret was “rewriting draft after draft.” He learned to “pay twice as much attention” and found that “in doing something over and over again, something that was never natural becomes almost second nature.”
• Will Smith (Musician/Actor): He attributes his success not to talent but to a “ridiculous, sickening work ethic.” He famously said, “I’m not afraid to die on a treadmill. I will not be outworked, period.”
• Harvard’s Treadmill Test: A 1940 study on “stamina and strength of will” found that how long 20-year-old men stayed on a grueling treadmill test (adjusted for physical fitness) “was a surprisingly reliable predictor of psychological adjustment throughout adulthood.” This demonstrated the tremendous impact of sustained effort.

Duckworth emphasizes that “consistency of effort over the long run is everything.” Many people quit too early when faced with obstacles or plateaus. Her formula implies that someone twice as talented but half as hardworking might reach the same skill level but produce dramatically less achievement over time, because effort builds skill AND makes skill productive.

Chapter 4: How Gritty Are You?

This chapter delves into the concept of grit as stamina rather than mere intensity, emphasizing the importance of loyalty to long-term goals. It introduces the Grit Scale as a self-assessment tool and explains its two core components: passion and perseverance.

Grit: Stamina Over Intensity

Duckworth clarifies that grit is not just about working incredibly hard. She illustrates this with an anecdote about an aspiring entrepreneur who touted his “prodigious grit” from pulling all-nighters for a start-up. Duckworth explained that true grit is about “stamina than intensity,” meaning the sustained energy over years, not just short bursts of effort.

• “There are no shortcuts to excellence.” Developing expertise takes longer than most people imagine.
• Grit is “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.”

The Grit Scale: Measuring Yourself

The chapter provides a ten-item Grit Scale (adapted from her original twelve-item version) for readers to self-assess their levels of passion and perseverance.

• Perseverance questions: “Setbacks don’t discourage me. I don’t give up easily.” and “I finish whatever I begin.”
• Passion questions: “My interests change from year to year.” and “I have been obsessed with a certain idea or project for a short time but later lost interest.”
• The scale is scored from 1 to 5. Duckworth notes that her own perseverance score (5.0) is higher than her passion score (4.2), suggesting these components, while correlated, are distinct.

The Role of Passion in Grit

Duckworth elaborates on the definition of passion in the context of grit, differentiating it from mere infatuation or obsession.

• Passion in grit refers to “consistency over time”—an “abiding, loyal, steady way” of pursuing an ultimate goal.
• Enthusiasm is common, endurance is rare.
• Jeffrey Gettleman, East Africa bureau chief for the New York Times and Pulitzer Prize winner, exemplifies this. His passion was to “live and work in East Africa,” with journalism serving as a means to that end. His journey involved a “winding road” over a decade, marked by difficulties, but his “passion as a compass” guided him.

Goal Hierarchies: The Structure of Gritty Goals

Duckworth explains how gritty individuals organize their goals in a hierarchy, where lower-level goals serve mid-level goals, which in turn serve a single, unifying top-level goal (life philosophy).

• Low-level goals: Concrete, specific tasks (e.g., “get out the door by eight a.m.”).
• Mid-level goals: Intermediate objectives that give purpose to low-level goals (e.g., “arrive at work on time” because “being punctual shows respect”).
• Top-level goal: The “ultimate concern” or “compass that gives direction and meaning to all the goals below it.” It is an end in itself, not a means to another end.
• Tom Seaver, Hall of Fame pitcher, exemplifies this. His ultimate goal of pitching “the best I possibly can day after day, year after year” dictated his diet, sleep, and even how he petted dogs.

Lack of Grit: Disorganized Goals

Duckworth identifies ways a lack of grit manifests in goal structures:

• Positive fantasizing: Having a top-level dream (e.g., “be a doctor”) but no supporting mid-level or low-level goals (Gabriele Oettingen’s research).
• Dispersed mid-level goals: Many mid-level goals that don’t correspond to any unifying top-level goal.
• Competing hierarchies: Multiple distinct goal hierarchies that create conflict and diffuse effort.

Prioritizing Like Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett’s three-step prioritization method is introduced:

1. List 25 career goals.
2. Circle the top 5 highest-priority goals.
3. Avoid the other 20 goals at all costs as they are distractions.
   Duckworth adds a fourth step: “Ask yourself, To what extent do these goals serve a common purpose?” The more they align to a single ultimate concern, the more focused your passion.

Flexibility at Lower Levels: The Cartoonist’s Example

Grit is not about stubbornly pursuing every low-level goal. Sometimes, abandoning a low-level goal is necessary if it’s no longer feasible or efficient in serving a higher purpose.

• Roz Chast, a New Yorker cartoonist, has a 90% rejection rate for her submissions, and other cartoonists face over 96% rejection.
• Bob Mankoff, former cartoon editor for the New Yorker, received two thousand rejection slips before his first acceptance. He persevered by analyzing successful cartoons to understand what made them work and developing his own distinctive “dot style.”
• Mankoff’s story illustrates that the highest-level goal should be “written in ink,” while lower-level goals are “written in pencil” and can be revised or replaced. This “Improvise, adapt, overcome” mindset is crucial.

The chapter concludes that the more unified, aligned, and coordinated our goal hierarchies, the grittier we are.

Chapter 5: Grit Grows

This chapter tackles the fundamental question of whether grit is innate or can be developed. Duckworth presents evidence that grit is influenced by both genetics and experience, emphasizing that it is mutable and can grow over time.

Nature and Nurture of Grit

Duckworth clarifies that every human trait, including grit, is influenced by both genes and experience.

• Genetics: Twin studies in the UK showed grit’s perseverance subscale has 37% heritability, and passion’s subscale has 20% heritability. These figures are typical for personality traits, meaning some variation is genetic, but most is environmental.
• Polygenic: There isn’t a single “grit gene”; traits are influenced by dozens or hundreds of genes that interact in complex ways.
• Environmental Impact: Just as average human height has dramatically increased due to nutrition and public health (the Flynn effect for IQ scores shows similar gains in abstract reasoning), experience profoundly influences trait development.

The Maturity Principle: Grit Increases with Age

Duckworth presents data showing that grittier adults are typically in their late sixties or older, while the least gritty are in their twenties. This trend suggests:

• Generational differences: Older generations might be grittier due to different cultural values.
• Personal maturation: People become grittier over time as they figure out their life philosophy, learn to cope with setbacks, and differentiate between goals to abandon and those to pursue tenaciously.
• Longitudinal studies on personality development support the “maturity principle,” showing most people become more conscientious, confident, caring, and calm with life experience, especially between ages 20 and 40.

How Life Experiences Foster Grit

Duckworth explains how personality, including grit, changes through life experience:

• Learning from failure: We learn that repeatedly abandoning ambitions is unfulfilling, and that “to do anything really well, you have to overextend yourself.”
• Changing circumstances: New situations (first job, marriage, caring for aging parents) demand different behaviors, and humans adapt. The example of Duckworth’s daughter, Lucy, learning potty training when changing to a “big kid” classroom illustrates necessity driving adaptation.
• Bernie Noe, headmaster of the Lakeside School, shared how his perpetually late daughter became punctual for her first job because the manager said, “the first time you’re late, you’re fired.” This shows “Lectures don’t have half the effect of consequences.”
• Habit Formation: Over time, new ways of thinking and acting become habitual, leading to an evolved sense of identity.

Four Psychological Assets That Grow Grit (Inside Out)

Duckworth identifies four psychological assets that gritty people possess, which tend to develop in a specific order:

1. Interest: Passion begins with intrinsically enjoying what you do. Gritty people are captivated by their overall endeavor, even if specific tasks are tedious. This is the counter to “I’m bored.”
2. Practice: This is the daily discipline of trying to do things better than yesterday. It involves focused, full-hearted, challenge-exceeding-skill practice. This counters “The effort isn’t worth it.”
3. Purpose: The conviction that your work matters to others. For many, this develops after interest and disciplined practice. This counters “This isn’t important to me.”
4. Hope: A “rising-to-the-occasion kind of perseverance.” It’s the expectation that one’s own efforts can improve the future, even when facing doubts. This counters “I can’t do this, so I might as well give up.”

These four assets are not “have it or you don’t” commodities; they can be learned and cultivated. This sets the stage for Part II, which explores how to grow grit “from the inside out.”

Part II: Growing Grit from the Inside Out

This section delves into the four psychological assets that contribute to grit: interest, practice, purpose, and hope. It provides deeper insights and actionable strategies for cultivating each from within.

Chapter 6: Interest

This chapter focuses on the crucial role of interest as the foundational component of passion and how it develops over time.

The “Follow Your Passion” Imperative

Commencement speeches often advise “Follow your passion,” exemplified by Will Shortz (NYT crossword editor) and Jeff Bezos (Amazon founder). Research confirms that people are “enormously more satisfied with their jobs when they do something that fits their personal interests,” and they “perform better at work when what they do interests them.”

• However, Duckworth notes that only 13% of adults worldwide feel “engaged” at work, suggesting a disconnect between advice and reality.
• Her father’s experience as a chemist, initially chosen out of practicality but becoming a passion, suggests that passion can be cultivated, not just found.

The Development of Interests: Discovery, Development, Deepening

Interests are rarely discovered as a sudden epiphany; rather, they evolve through a three-stage process:

1. Discovery: Interests are “triggered by interactions with the outside world,” often serendipitous. Initial interest can go unnoticed. Childhood is too early for most to know their true vocation.
   • Rowdy Gaines (Olympic swimmer) tried multiple sports before swimming “stuck.”
   • Marc Vetri (chef) initially pursued music, working in restaurants for money, before cooking became his “opportunity.”
   • Julia Child’s initial “epiphany” from sole meunière was the start of a “succession of interest-stimulating experiences,” leading to a lifelong romance with French cuisine.
   • NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins was inspired by multiple space shuttle launches before pursuing more information.
2. Development: Initial triggers must be followed by repeated exposure and positive reinforcement.
   • Encouraging supporters (parents, teachers, coaches, peers) are crucial for providing stimulation and positive feedback.
   • Marc Vetri’s love for cooking deepened through camaraderie in the kitchen and the encouragement of friends and mentors.
   • Autonomy in choice is important; overbearing approaches can erode intrinsic motivation.
3. Deepening: Over time, interests evolve from broad curiosity to a nuanced appreciation of complexity.
   • Will Shortz’s interest in puzzles, initially triggered by a puzzle book, deepened through his mother’s encouragement to sell his work and his self-designed “enigmatology” major.
   • Jeff Bezos’s childhood mechanical contraptions, supported by his curious mother, led to a deep interest in inventing.
   • Jane Golden (Mural Arts Program director) found her “mundane” work of running the program became a creative endeavor by seeing “tremendous complexity and nuance” in it.
   • Psychologist Paul Silvia explains that for experts, novelty comes from nuance, seeing details a novice cannot.

Duckworth concludes that passion is “a little bit of discovery, followed by a lot of development, and then a lifetime of deepening.” Beginners need encouragement and freedom to explore, and they need small wins. Rushing a beginner can “bludgeon their budding interest.”

Chapter 7: Practice

This chapter explores the second psychological asset of grit: practice, focusing on the concept of deliberate practice and its role in achieving excellence. It differentiates effective practice from mere experience.

The Problem with “More Time on Task”

Duckworth observes that mere time spent on a task doesn’t guarantee excellence; some people accumulate “one year of experience… twenty times in a row.” This leads to the concept of Kaizen, the Japanese principle of “continuous improvement,” which all grit paragons embody. They have a “persistent desire to do better” and are the “opposite of being complacent.”

Anders Ericsson and Deliberate Practice

Duckworth introduces Anders Ericsson, the world expert on expertise, who identifies deliberate practice as the key differentiator for world-class skill.

• Skill improves gradually over years, but the rate of improvement slows with increasing expertise.
• Elite performers log thousands of hours (the “ten-thousand-hour rule” or “ten-year-rule” are rough averages) of deliberate practice.
• Deliberate practice is not simply “more hours” but “better time on task.”

How Experts Practice Deliberately

Duckworth outlines the four key components of deliberate practice, as derived from Ericsson’s work:

1. Set a stretch goal: Experts “zero in on just one narrow aspect” of performance, focusing on specific weaknesses they can’t yet meet. Rowdy Gaines tried to beat his own swim times by a second.
2. Undivided attention and great effort: Practice requires complete concentration, often done alone. Kevin Durant spends 70% of his time “by myself, working on my game.”
3. Seek immediate and informative feedback: Experts are “more interested in what they did wrong—so they can fix it.” Ulrik Christensen‘s virtual reality medical training showed doctors improved when they paused to reflect on their doubts before seeing feedback.
4. Repetition with reflection and refinement: Experts practice the same thing again and again until it’s mastered, then move to a new stretch goal. Benjamin Franklin improved his writing by rewriting essays and comparing them to originals, or jumbling notes to improve logical arrangement.

These principles apply across fields, from Peter Drucker’s management advice to Atul Gawande’s surgical insights and David Blaine’s breath-holding world record.

Deliberate Practice at the National Spelling Bee

Duckworth and Ericsson studied National Spelling Bee finalists:

• Grittier spellers practiced more.
• Deliberate practice (unassisted, solitary spelling, memorizing roots) predicted higher performance far better than other activities like quizzing or reading for fun.
• Deliberate practice was rated as “significantly more effortful, and significantly less enjoyable,” than other preparation methods. This aligns with Martha Graham’s description of dancing as involving “fatigue so great that the body cries even in its sleep.”

Deliberate Practice vs. Flow

Duckworth addresses the apparent contradiction between Ericsson’s view of deliberate practice (effortful, uncomfortable) and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of flow (effortless, enjoyable absorption).

• Duckworth’s research found that grittier people experience more flow AND do more deliberate practice.
• Her conclusion: Deliberate practice is for preparation (skill building), and flow is for performance (effortless execution of built skill). They are complementary, not contradictory.
• Rowdy Gaines “hated practice, but I had an overall passion for swimming.” He swam 20,000 miles for a 49-second race. Katie Ledecky, a world-record swimmer, described her record-breaking race as “pretty easy” and “so relaxed,” but credited it to “the work I have put in.”

Making Deliberate Practice Effective

Duckworth offers three suggestions:

1. Know the science: Understand the four requirements (stretch goal, concentration, feedback, repetition). Many “supermotivated people” are not doing deliberate practice effectively.
2. Make it a habit: Practice at the same time and place daily. “Routines are a godsend when it comes to doing something hard.” Examples include Charles Schulz and Maya Angelou’s daily rituals.
3. Change how you experience it:
   • Embrace challenge: Coach Terry Laughlin suggests learning to “embrace challenge rather than fear it” through “in-the-moment self-awareness without judgment.”
   • Model positive responses to mistakes: Psychologists Elena Bodrova and Deborah Leong note that children naturally learn from mistakes without embarrassment until adults teach them to feel shame. They recommend teachers model “emotion-free mistake making” (e.g., “Oh, gosh, I thought there were five blocks! . . . I learned I need to touch each block as I count!”).

The chapter concludes that deliberate practice is “deeply gratifying” even if not always “effortless flow,” and that this effortful training is essential for true mastery.

Chapter 8: Purpose

This chapter explores the third psychological asset of grit: purpose, defining it as the intention to contribute to the well-being of others. It argues that for mature passions, purpose is as crucial as interest.

Defining Purpose in Grit

Duckworth defines purpose as “the intention to contribute to the well-being of others.” While some, like Alex Scott (who started a lemonade stand for cancer research at age 4), demonstrate precocious altruism, most people develop purpose after discovering and developing an interest.

• Benjamin Bloom’s “later years” of skill development emphasize the emergence of “the larger purpose and meaning” of work.
• Gritty people, when asked about purpose, “always—always—mention other people,” whether specific individuals (children, clients) or abstract entities (society, science). Their efforts are worth it because they “pay dividends to other people.”

Purpose Beyond the Obvious

Duckworth illustrates purpose with diverse examples:

• Jane Golden (Mural Arts Program director): After recovering from lupus, she realized her art could “save lives.” Her work, despite pain, is driven by a “moral imperative” to serve the community.
• Antonio Galloni (wine critic): His mission is “to help people understand their own palates” and “make a million lightbulbs go off.” He feels he’s making the world better in a “small way.”

The Dual Pursuit of Happiness: Pleasure and Purpose

Duckworth connects purpose to the Aristotelian concept of eudaimonic happiness (harmony with one’s inner spirit) versus hedonic happiness (self-centered pleasure).

• Both have evolutionary roots: pleasure aids survival (food, sex), and purpose/connection fosters cooperation and societal well-being.
• Research with 16,000 adults showed that grittier individuals are “dramatically more motivated than others to seek a meaningful, other-centered life,” while their pleasure-seeking is similar to less gritty people.
• While it’s theoretically possible to be a “gritty villain” (e.g., Hitler, Stalin), Duckworth’s research suggests “many more gritty heroes” whose ultimate aims are deeply connected to the world beyond themselves.

Job, Career, or Calling: How Work is Viewed

Inspired by Yale professor Amy Wrzesniewski’s research, Duckworth explores how people view their work:

• Job: A necessity for survival (“just a necessity of life”).
• Career: A stepping-stone to other jobs (“primarily as a stepping-stone”).
• Calling: Work that is “one of the most important things in my life” and “makes the world a better place.”
• Not surprisingly, those who view their work as a calling are significantly grittier, more satisfied, and miss fewer workdays. This applies even to low-paying jobs like zookeeping or physically demanding ones like garbage collecting (Roy Schmidt).

Cultivating Purpose

Amy Wrzesniewski emphasizes that a calling is “not some fully formed thing that you find” but “much more dynamic.” It’s about “continually look[ing] at what you do and ask[ing] how it connects to other people.”

• Joe Leader, a senior vice president at NYC Transit, initially took his engineering job to pay student loans but grew to see it as a calling after realizing he was “making a contribution to society” by keeping trains running and moving people safely.
• Michael Baime, a University of Pennsylvania professor of internal medicine, took decades to integrate his personal interest in mindfulness with the purpose of helping patients, eventually creating a program for well-being through mindfulness. He literally found his calling after years of practice.
• Duckworth’s own experience with the Summerbridge program in college (now Breakthrough Greater Boston) revealed the “power of purpose” in driving seemingly impossible tasks (like fundraising from scratch) because it was for the benefit of disadvantaged kids.

The Selfish-Selfless Paradox

Duckworth discusses Adam Grant’s research showing that self-oriented and other-oriented motivations are not opposing but independent.

• Individuals (leaders, employees) who hold both personal interests and prosocial interests (desire to help others) do better in the long run.
• Firefighters and fundraisers who had both intrinsic interest and prosocial motives exerted significantly more effort.
• David Yeager and Matt Bundick’s research found adolescents who articulated both self- and other-oriented motives for their future work found their schoolwork more personally meaningful.
• Kat Cole (Cinnabon president) attributes her unlikely corporate ascent to her mother’s ethic of “work hard and give back.” Her initial motives (tips, curiosity) combined with a desire to be helpful led her to take on more responsibilities, ultimately finding her purpose in “helping people realize they’re capable of more than they know.”

Recommendations for Cultivating Purpose

1. Reflect on how your current work contributes to society: David Yeager’s exercise had high school students link their learning to improving the world, doubling study time and improving grades.
2. Job crafting: Amy Wrzesniewski suggests tweaking your daily routine to enhance its connection to core values. Google employees who attended a job-crafting workshop were happier and more effective.
3. Find inspiration in a purposeful role model: Bill Damon’s research shows that observing someone enact purpose, especially witnessing their struggles and gratification, is crucial. Duckworth points to her own mother as a model for generous, other-centered purpose.

Purpose transforms work from a chore into a deeply meaningful endeavor, imbuing every small task with significance and providing a powerful, sustained source of motivation.

Chapter 9: Hope

This chapter explores the fourth and final psychological asset of grit: hope, defining it not as passive optimism but as an active, effortful belief in one’s ability to improve the future.

Defining Hope: Beyond Wishing

Duckworth distinguishes between two types of hope:

• Passive hope: The expectation that tomorrow will be better, placing responsibility on external forces (e.g., “yearning for sunnier weather”). This hope “comes without the burden of responsibility.”
• Gritty hope: The “expectation that our own efforts can improve our future.” It’s “I resolve to make tomorrow better,” and “has nothing to do with luck and everything to do with getting up again.”

Learning Hope: The Neurobiology of Resilience

Duckworth shares her personal experience of nearly failing a neurobiology course in college. Despite two initial failures, she resolved to “stay enrolled in—and, in fact, major in—neurobiology,” defying her TA’s advice. This was her moment of defiant, gritty hope, leading her to work harder and ace the final.

• She connects this to Marty Seligman and Steve Maier’s learned helplessness experiments from 1964. Dogs subjected to uncontrollable electric shocks later “just lie down whimpering, passively waiting for the punishments to stop.” This proved that “it isn’t suffering that leads to hopelessness. It’s suffering you think you can’t control.”
• Her own experience paralleled the one-third of dogs who, despite trauma, “kept trying maneuvers that would bring relief from pain.”

Optimism and Explanatory Style

Seligman’s later work on learned optimism found that optimists and pessimists face similar adverse events but differ in their explanations (explanatory style):

• Pessimists: Habitually attribute suffering to permanent and pervasive causes (e.g., “I screw up everything,” “I’m a loser”). This makes giving up seem logical.
• Optimists: Search for temporary and specific causes (e.g., “I mismanaged my time,” “I didn’t work efficiently”). This “fixability” motivates them to act.
• Optimists tend to be happier, earn higher grades, stay healthier, have more satisfied marriages, and in sales, outsell pessimists by 20% to 40%. Elite optimistic swimmers performed better after being told they swam slower than actual.
• Journalist Hester Lacey found that highly creative people “don’t really think in terms of disappointment,” viewing setbacks as learning opportunities.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Mindsets

Aaron Beck’s cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which focuses on changing self-talk and maladaptive behaviors, is presented as a way to cultivate optimism.

• Carol Dweck’s research on mindsets (which Duckworth explores deeply with her students) further explains why people respond differently to setbacks.
• Fixed mindset: Belief that intelligence/talent is an unchangeable, inherent trait (e.g., “You can’t really change how intelligent you are”). Leads to interpreting setbacks as proof of inadequacy and giving up.
• Growth mindset: Belief that intelligence/abilities can improve with effort and learning (e.g., “You can always substantially change how intelligent you are”). Leads to interpreting setbacks as opportunities to learn and try harder.
• Duckworth’s studies consistently find that students with a growth mindset are significantly grittier, earn higher grades, and are more likely to persist in college.

Cultivating a Growth Mindset and Optimism

Recommendations for teaching hope:

1. Update beliefs about intelligence and talent: Understand that the brain is plastic; it can grow new connections and strengthen existing ones throughout life (like a muscle). IQ scores are not entirely fixed.
2. Practice optimistic self-talk: Use the principles of CBT and resilience training to challenge pessimistic interpretations and change maladaptive behaviors.
3. Ask for a helping hand: Rhonda Hughes, a mathematician who faced 79 rejections for a faculty position, emphasized that she “almost never got back up all by herself.” She sought help from mentors and co-founded a program to support women in math.

Adversity and Growth: What Doesn’t Kill You…

Duckworth addresses Nietzsche’s quote, “What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.”

• While some adversity makes us stronger (like Outward Bound experiences), some makes us weaker (like the helpless dogs).
• Steve Maier’s (Seligman’s colleague) research with adolescent rats showed that experiencing controllable stress in youth made them resilient to learned helplessness in adulthood, while uncontrollable stress led to timidity. This implies that mastery experienced alongside adversity is crucial for long-term hope.
• Duckworth worries about “fragile perfects”—high-achievers who cruise through life without significant failure, lacking practice in getting back up. Kayvon Asemani, despite a traumatic childhood and high school success, showed a growth mindset in college, embracing quantitative challenges even with lower grades, because he was “going to apply all the grit I have.”

Ultimately, hope is cultivated by believing in one’s capacity for growth, practicing positive self-talk, and seeking support from others when faced with challenges.

Part III: Growing Grit from the Outside In

This final section explores how external factors, particularly parenting and culture, can significantly influence the development of grit in individuals.

Chapter 10: Parenting for Grit

This chapter explores how parents can foster grit in their children, examining different parenting styles and their impact.

Debating Parenting Styles for Grit

Duckworth addresses the common debate about parenting for grit:

• “Crucible of adversity” approach: Believes grit is forged through harshness and high standards, like John Watson’s 1928 advice to “never hug and kiss” children and to avoid coddling.
• “Unconditional affection” approach: Believes grit blooms with unconditional love and support, allowing children to follow intrinsic interests.
• Duckworth argues neither extreme is optimal.

The Case of Steve Young: Tough Love in Action

Steve Young, the NFL Hall of Fame quarterback, credits his parents, Sherry and LeGrande Young (nicknamed “Grit”), as his “foundation.”

• His father instilled “finish what you begin” by refusing to let Steve quit sports, even when he was the eighth-string quarterback at BYU or struggling in baseball. This often involved “tough love.”
• However, his parents were also “tremendously supportive,” with their home being a favorite hangout and his mother sitting in his second-grade classroom for weeks when he refused to go to school due to anxiety.
• Steve emphasized that his father’s tough love was a “loving act” because he knew Steve, understood his fears, and showed it was “not about him and what he needed,” but about Steve’s success. This implied an “underlying selflessness.”

The Case of Francesca Martinez: Nurturing Dreams with Limits

Francesca Martinez, a British stand-up comic with cerebral palsy, was encouraged by her parents, Tina and Alex, to “Go and follow your dreams,” even dropping out of high school to pursue acting. They were “absurdly cool” and provided “overwhelming support and positivity.”

• Yet, they were also “no-nonsense parents,” who enforced clear principles, like insisting Francesca do her physical therapy exercises despite her hatred for them. They also had no television to foster real-world interaction.
• Francesca attributes her persistence to her parents’ unconditional support, which built her “self-worth” and “belief you can do it.” Her father, a writer, modeled hard work and finishing what you begin.

Wise Parenting: Both Demanding and Supportive

Duckworth synthesizes these examples with research on parenting styles:

• The optimal style is “authoritative parenting”, which Duckworth calls “wise parenting.” These parents are both demanding and supportive.
• They understand children need “love, limits, and latitude to reach their full potential.” Their authority is based on “knowledge and wisdom, rather than power.”
• Research by Larry Steinberg on 10,000 teenagers found that children with warm, respectful, and demanding parents had higher grades, more self-reliance, less anxiety/depression, and less delinquency.
• Children’s interpretation of parental messages matters more than the message itself.
• Emulation vs. Imitation: Wise parents not only model a strong work ethic and their own interests, but their children “revere” and “emulate” these behaviors, internalizing the values rather than merely copying them.

Recommendations for Parenting for Grit

• Self-reflection: Parents should first ask about their own passion and perseverance for life goals and how likely their parenting encourages their children to emulate them.
• Hard Thing Rule: Duckworth’s family implements this rule:
  1. Everyone does a hard thing: Requires daily deliberate practice (e.g., Mom does psychology research and yoga; daughters do piano/viola).
  2. You can quit, but not on a bad day: Commitment must last until a “natural” stopping point (e.g., season over, tuition up).
  3. You pick your hard thing: Ensures intrinsic interest.
  4. (Added for high school) Commit to at least one activity for two years.

Beyond Parents: Other “Parents” for Grit

Duckworth highlights that other adults can also foster grit:

• Mentors: Tobi Lütke (Shopify founder) learned to love programming from Jürgen, a demanding but supportive mentor who pushed him just outside his comfort zone.
• Teachers: Ron Ferguson’s research found that “psychologically wise teachers” (both demanding and supportive) produce academic gains, well-being, engagement, and high hopes in students.
• David Yeager and Geoff Cohen’s Post-it note experiment showed that simple messages like “I’m giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know that you can reach them” dramatically increased student revisions and effort.
• Cody Coleman’s story of overcoming extreme poverty and family trauma to attend MIT illustrates the profound impact of a supportive brother and an “extraordinarily wise and wonderful high school math teacher,” Chantel Smith, who provided both high expectations and unwavering support, showing that “you don’t need to be a parent to make a difference in someone’s life.”

This chapter concludes that grit is best cultivated in environments that provide both unwavering support and appropriately high expectations, whether from parents or other caring adults.

Chapter 11: The Playing Fields of Grit

This chapter advocates for structured extracurricular activities as crucial “playing fields of grit,” where children can practice passion and perseverance in unique ways.

The Value of Extracurricular Activities

Duckworth highlights that extracurricular activities (ballet, sports, music, debate) offer two key features that foster grit:

1. Non-parent adult mentorship: An adult, ideally both supportive and demanding, who is not the child’s parent.
2. Cultivation of interest, practice, purpose, and hope: These activities are designed to develop these four assets.

• Beeper studies show that when kids are in extracurriculars, they report being both challenged and having fun—a combination rarely found in other daily activities.
• Long-term benefits: Numerous studies show strong correlations between extracurricular participation and better grades, higher self-esteem, reduced delinquency, and better adult outcomes (college graduation, employment, volunteering).

Follow-Through as a Predictor of Success

Duckworth emphasizes the importance of multiyear commitment in extracurriculars:

• Steve Young’s high school football success was aided by his self-directed practice with a weighted football for a year.
• Margo Gardner’s study of 11,000 teenagers found that participating in extracurriculars for two years or more significantly predicted college graduation, employment, and volunteering.
• Warren Willingham’s 1978 Personal Qualities Project (funded by ETS) aimed to find non-academic predictors of success. He found “follow-through”—“purposeful, continuous commitment to certain types of activities” (multiyear participation with demonstrated advancement)—was the single strongest predictor of college academic honors, leadership, and notable accomplishments in young adulthood, outperforming even high school grades and SAT scores.
• Duckworth replicated Willingham’s findings with her Grit Grid study of 1,200 high school seniors, showing that higher Grit Grid scores (quantifying multiyear commitment and advancement in two activities) predicted significantly higher rates of college persistence. The same applied to novice teachers’ persistence and effectiveness.

Cultivation and Selection: The Corresponsive Principle

Duckworth proposes that extracurriculars both require grit AND build it.

• Brent Roberts’s corresponsive principle states that traits that steer individuals to certain situations are then reinforced and amplified by those situations.
• A child who gives up easily might fall into a vicious cycle of quitting, while a child nudged to stick with a challenging activity might enter a virtuous cycle of struggle, progress, and increased confidence.

Institutional Support for Extracurriculars

• Harvard’s admissions dean, Bill Fitzsimmons, confirmed that Harvard deeply values extracurricular follow-through, seeing it as evidence of “singular energy, discipline, and plain old hard work” (grit). He views these experiences as “transformative,” teaching transferable lessons.
• Geoffrey Canada of the Harlem Children’s Zone (a program focused on lifting children out of poverty) champions extracurriculars for disadvantaged youth, even without explicit scientific evidence of direct academic benefits. He provides them because he “actually likes kids” and believes in the value of a “decent childhood,” which includes such opportunities.
• Robert Eisenberger’s research on “learned industriousness” with rats and children shows that working hard for rewards (rather than easy rewards) leads to greater vigor and endurance on subsequent difficult tasks. This demonstrates that industriousness can be learned through practice and that the association between effort and reward is crucial.

The Hard Thing Rule in Action

The chapter concludes with Duckworth’s personal “Hard Thing Rule” for her own children:

• Everyone (including parents) must do a hard thing requiring daily deliberate practice.
• You can quit, but not until a natural stopping point (e.g., end of season, tuition period). “You can’t quit on a bad day.”
• You get to pick your hard thing, ensuring some initial interest.
• For high school, an additional rule: commit to at least one activity for a minimum of two years.
  This framework provides both structure and autonomy, allowing children to cultivate grit through sustained, self-chosen challenges.

Chapter 12: A Culture of Grit

This chapter explores the profound impact of culture on individual grit, arguing that joining or creating a gritty culture can significantly enhance one’s passion and perseverance.

Culture as a Shaping Force

Duckworth defines culture as the “shared norms and values of a group of people,” or “how we do things around here and why.” When individuals “adopt a culture,” they make a “categorical allegiance” and internalize its norms, which become “The way I do things and why.”

• She argues that if you want to be grittier, “find a gritty culture and join it.” If you’re a leader, “create a gritty culture.”

The Seattle Seahawks: A Culture of Competitors

Duckworth recounts her interactions with Pete Carroll, head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, who explicitly seeks players with “grit” and a “mindset that they’re always going to succeed.”

• Carroll’s philosophy, “Win Forever,” is about “creating a vision… and the discipline and effort to maintain that vision.”
• He views the Seahawks as a “bona fide culture” that teaches players to “persevere” and “unleash their passion.”
• Carroll’s approach involves “relentless—absolutely relentless—communication” of core values and a culture of “competitive opportunities and moments and illustrations.”
• “Competition Wednesdays” involve full-intensity scrimmages, not just to win, but to push players to their best. “Compete” means “excellence,” deriving from the Latin “strive together,” not just defeating others.
• The Beep Test at UNC (from Anson Dorrance, whom Carroll studied) is used by Carroll as a “test of your mentality,” assessing discipline and mental toughness through pain.
• The “social multiplier” effect is evident: one player’s grit, like free safety Earl Thomas’s, serves as a model, enhancing the grit of others in the team.

Identity and Action: “Who Am I?”

Duckworth introduces James March’s decision-making theory:

• Sometimes, we make choices based on cost-benefit analyses.
• Other times, especially for gritty individuals, decisions are based on identity: “Who am I? What is this situation? What does someone like me do in a situation like this?”
• Tom Deierlein, a West Pointer and two-time CEO, exemplifies this. After being shot by a sniper and told he might never walk, he promised to run the Army Ten-Miler. His relentless physical therapy and continued effort, even after hitting a plateau, were driven by the identity: “I simply wasn’t going to fail because I didn’t care or didn’t try. That’s not who I am.”

Sisu: The Finnish Spirit of Perseverance

Duckworth explores the Finnish concept of sisu (pronounced see-sue), which is the closest word to grit in Finnish.

• Sisu refers to an “inner strength—a sort of psychological capital” that Finns believe is inherent to their heritage. It’s about “bravado and bravery, of ferocity and tenacity, of the ability to keep fighting after most people would have quit.”
• Emilia Lahti’s research found that 83% of Finns believe sisu can be learned or developed, often through challenging experiences like scouting.
• Two powerful lessons from sisu:
  1. Thinking of yourself as someone who can overcome adversity leads to behavior that confirms that self-conception (identity-driven action).
  2. The metaphor of an “inner energy source” is apt because even when we feel drained, continued effort can lead to unexpected achievements.

Building Gritty Organizational Culture

Leaders can intentionally cultivate gritty cultures:

• Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, embodies “fortitude” (his term for grit), which he attributes to learning from being fired and overcoming setbacks. He makes fortitude a core value for the bank, communicating it “relentless[ly]” through town hall meetings and internal manuals. He quotes Teddy Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” speech, which champions striving valiantly despite errors.
• Anson Dorrance, the winningest coach in women’s soccer history at UNC, attributes his success to culture, not just recruitment. His “competitive cauldron” culture is built on:
  • Sharing Grit Scale scores with players to increase self-awareness.
  • The Beep Test to assess mental toughness and discipline.
  • Twelve core values (half on teamwork, half on grit), with mandatory memorization of related literary quotes (inspired by Joseph Brodsky’s teaching method). This ensures players “feel and live and breathe” the values.
• Robert Caslen, West Point’s superintendent, transformed the academy’s culture from an “attrition model” (hazing, survival of the fittest) to a “developmental model” based on unconditional respect and support while maintaining high standards. This has drastically reduced attrition by leading “from the front” and helping cadets develop.

The chapter concludes with Duckworth’s visit to the Seahawks after their Super Bowl XLIX loss, observing how Pete Carroll and the team faced “the worst call in NFL history.” Carroll’s focus on “finish strong” means “consistently focusing and doing your absolute best at every moment, from start to finish.” The team’s ethos, like their “LOB: Love Our Brothers” bracelets, reinforces their collective identity and shared commitment to excellence.

Chapter 13: Conclusion

Duckworth concludes by reiterating the core message of the book, offering final thoughts on cultivating grit, its relationship to happiness and other virtues, and the pervasive nature of self-imposed limits.

You Can Grow Your Grit

Duckworth emphasizes that grit is not fixed; it can be developed. She summarizes the two main pathways:

1. From the inside out: Cultivating personal interests, developing a habit of daily deliberate practice, connecting work to a purpose beyond oneself, and learning to maintain hope even in adversity.
2. From the outside in: Relying on the influence of other people—parents, coaches, teachers, bosses, mentors, and friends—who can provide the necessary support and challenge.

Grit and Happiness

Duckworth addresses the question of whether increased grit might come at the cost of happiness. Her research with two thousand adults found that “the grittier a person is, the more likely they’ll enjoy a healthy emotional life.” Grit and well-being go hand-in-hand.

• She acknowledges that further research is needed to explore potential downsides, such as the impact on families of gritty individuals who are intensely devoted to their goals. Her daughters, Amanda and Lucy, sometimes wish she’d “relax a little” but aspire to her level of grit, recognizing the “satisfaction that comes from doing something important… and doing it well.”

Can You Have Too Much Grit?

While Aristotle argued for a “golden mean” (e.g., too much courage is folly), Duckworth has not found an “inverted-U function” for grit, meaning there’s no evidence that excessive grit becomes detrimental.

• She concedes that giving up can sometimes be the best course of action (e.g., quitting piano or French when interests or talents didn’t align). Ideally, lower-order goals can be abandoned while holding fast to an “ultimate concern.”
• However, she notes that it’s rare for people to complain about others being “too gritty.” She concludes that “most of us would be better off with more grit, not less.”

Grit and Other Character Strengths

Duckworth clarifies that grit is “far from the only—or even the most important—aspect of a person’s character.” Character is “plural” and encompasses multiple virtues. She identifies three reliable clusters:

• Intrapersonal character (strengths of will): Includes grit and self-control. These are “performance character” or “resume virtues” that aid personal goal accomplishment.
• Interpersonal character (strengths of heart): Includes gratitude, social intelligence, and emotional self-control. These are “moral character” or “eulogy virtues” that foster positive social relationships and aid others.
• Intellectual character (strengths of mind): Includes curiosity and zest, encouraging open engagement with ideas.

Her longitudinal studies show these clusters predict different outcomes (e.g., intrapersonal for academic achievement, interpersonal for social functioning, intellectual for learning posture).

Limits and Potential

Duckworth addresses the concern that promoting grit might set unreasonably high expectations. She refutes the idea that one must be a “Mozart” or “Einstein” to make effort worthwhile.

• “We all face limits—not just in talent, but in opportunity.” But often, “our limits are self-imposed.” People try, fail, and conclude they’ve hit a ceiling, or change direction too quickly, never venturing far enough.
• “To be gritty is to keep putting one foot in front of the other. To be gritty is to hold fast to an interesting and purposeful goal. To be gritty is to invest, day after week after year, in challenging practice. To be gritty is to fall down seven times, and rise eight.”

The Writing Process as an Example of Grit

Duckworth concludes with the example of Ta-Nehisi Coates, a MacArthur Fellow and journalist, who describes his writing process as “Failure is probably the most important factor in all of my work. Writing is failure. Over and over and over again.” He then details the process of refining “horribleness” into “maybe average” and, if lucky, “good” through repeated effort.

• This mirrors Duckworth’s own journey and her father’s early pronouncements. She redefines genius: “if… you define genius as working toward excellence, ceaselessly, with every element of your being—then, in fact, my dad is a genius, and so am I, and so is Coates, and, if you’re willing, so are you.”

Key Takeaways: What You Need to Remember

Core Insights from Grit

• Grit is paramount for long-term achievement: It consistently predicts success across diverse domains, often outperforming raw talent or IQ.
• Effort counts twice: Skill is the product of talent and effort (Talent x Effort = Skill). Achievement is the product of skill and effort (Skill x Effort = Achievement). This means sustained effort builds ability and makes that ability productive.
• Grit is mutable, not fixed: You can grow your grit over time through conscious effort and by being in supportive environments.
• Passion for your ultimate goal is key: This means a consistent, enduring commitment to a top-level life philosophy, not just fleeting enthusiasm.
• Deliberate practice is the path to expertise: It’s about focused, effortful training on weaknesses, seeking feedback, and relentless repetition, rather than just accumulating hours.
• Purpose provides sustained motivation: Connecting your work to the well-being of others makes effort more meaningful and enduring.
• Hope is the foundation of perseverance: It’s an active belief that your efforts can improve the future, cultivated by optimistic explanatory styles and a growth mindset.
• Culture profoundly shapes grit: Joining or creating a gritty culture can reinforce and amplify individual passion and perseverance by aligning norms, values, and identity.

Immediate Actions to Take Today

• Self-assess your grit: Take the Grit Scale to understand your current levels of passion and perseverance.
• Identify your top-level goal: Articulate your ultimate life philosophy or calling that gives meaning to all lower-level goals.
• Prioritize with purpose: Use Warren Buffett’s two-list strategy (25 goals, circle 5, avoid the rest) and add the question: “How do these goals serve a common purpose?”
• Embrace deliberate practice: Choose one skill to improve, set a specific stretch goal, dedicate focused time, seek feedback, and practice with reflection.
• Reframe setbacks optimistically: When faced with failure, consciously identify temporary and specific causes (“I mismanaged my time”) rather than permanent and pervasive ones (“I’m a loser”).
• Cultivate a growth mindset: Remind yourself and others that intelligence and abilities can grow through effort and learning, using language that praises effort over innate talent.
• Consider the Hard Thing Rule: If you have children or mentor others, implement a rule requiring commitment to a challenging activity, allowing quitting only at natural stopping points.
• Seek out gritty cultures: Identify groups, teams, or organizations with strong norms of passion and perseverance and immerse yourself in them.

Questions for Personal Application

• What is your unifying, top-level goal, or “life philosophy”? How do your current activities align with this ultimate concern?
• What specific skill could you start applying deliberate practice to today? What is one specific weakness you can focus on improving?
• When you face a setback, what is your immediate self-talk? How can you reframe it more optimistically?
• How can you connect your daily work or activities to a purpose beyond yourself or to the well-being of others?
• Who in your life exemplifies grit, and what specific behaviors or attitudes can you emulate from them?
• What kind of culture (at home, work, or in your community) are you part of, and how does it either reinforce or challenge your grit? How can you contribute to building a grittier culture?