Grit by Angela Duckworth
“Nobody wants to show you the hours and hours of becoming.
They’d rather show you the highlight of what they’ve become.”
3 Main Messages:
Ultimately grit is more important than talent
In order to improve we need to ‘hungrily’ seek feedback!
The most successful people are altruistic and succeed due to a combination of purpose and pleasure
I read this book on the back of a summer watching the Paris Olympics where 2 World Records were set, 13 Olympic records, 2 Olympic decathlon best performances, 21 area records, 99 national records, and 311 personal bests.* No one would claim that these records could be set by chance or by talent alone. More likely they are achieved through skill and a lot of incredibly hard work. In other words, these athletes provide the perfect example of what can be accomplished as a result of grit.
Angela Duckworth’s book is split into three parts: What is grit and why it matters; growing grit from the inside out; and growing grit from the outside in. The book opens with anecdotes from a US Military Academy known as ‘Beast Barracks,’ where Duckworth writes that it was a “combination of passion and perseverance that made high achievers special. In a word, they had grit.” She goes on to write about the importance of determination as well as talent and how we can inadvertently inhibit talent by ranking students based on what they are currently exhibiting, rather than what they are capable of.
Mirroring Sir Dave Brailsford’s work of marginal gains with the UK Olympic cycling team, Duckworth writes about the importance of dedication and the aggregate gain of many small steps, rather than one flash of brilliance. She writes that “the most dazzling human achievements are, in fact, the aggregate of countless individual elements, each of which is, in a sense, ordinary.” She argues, therefore, that while talent is important, truly great things are accomplished when talented (or marginally talented) people demonstrate commitment and tenacity. This, she argues, is grit.
In part two, the focus is on first finding one’s passion and talents and then following them. Years ago I worked with an incredible Music teacher who would constantly say to children that they were not practising until they got it right; they were practising until they couldn’t get it wrong. I loved this and it echoes much of the messaging in this book. In order to build on current skills and knowledge, Duckworth writes that gritty people are always looking to improve. This is done usually by setting a stretch goal, practising and then getting as much feedback as possible and then repeating the practise again and again and again. Many will give up along the way, but those with grit will persist and are more likely to perfect as a result.
In the third section, Duckworth writes about the difference between permissive parenting, neglectful parenting, authoritarian parenting and (the optimum) wise parenting. She writes that good parenting is a balance of being both supportive and demanding: “children need love, limits and latitude to reach their full potential.” Reminiscent of Kim Scott’s work in Radical Candor, Duckworth encourages parents, teachers and leaders to balance care with challenge in order to get the best out of others.
In the concluding section, journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates is quoted as saying “Failure is probably the most important factor in all of my work.” The ability to pick oneself up and learn from failures is probably the most important factor in demonstrating true grit. As the US Olympian Carrie Johnson once said: “Falling in life is inevitable - staying down is optional.”
Those with grit get up.
*https://worldathletics.org/news/press-releases/paris-2024-universality-athletics-heartbeat-olympic-movement
