Book Summary: Grit

Showing Up

• West Point Attrition: Despite a rigorous admissions process, a significant number of cadets drop out during the intensive summer training program known as Beast Barracks.
• The Grit Factor: Research conducted at West Point found that grit, a combination of passion and perseverance, was a more reliable predictor of success in completing Beast Barracks than traditional measures of talent and aptitude.
• Grit Beyond West Point: Studies in various challenging domains, including sales, education, and the military, further demonstrated the importance of grit in predicting success and retention.
• Grit and the Spelling Bee: Research on National Spelling Bee finalists showed that grittier students practiced more and performed better, highlighting the role of effort and perseverance in achieving excellence.
• The Separation of Grit and Talent: Talent does not guarantee grit. Studies on Ivy League students and spelling bee participants revealed that talent and grit are separate constructs and that high talent does not necessarily translate to high levels of grit.

Distracted by Talent

• Talent vs. Achievement in the Classroom: As a math teacher, the author observed that students with natural talent did not always excel, while those who initially struggled but worked hard often achieved better results, highlighting the distinction between aptitude and achievement.
• Early Views on Achievement: Francis Galton and Charles Darwin debated the importance of talent versus zeal and hard work in achieving success. Darwin believed that effort and perseverance were more crucial than intellect.
• William James and the Energies of Men: Psychologist William James argued that individuals rarely utilize their full potential and that effort plays a significant role in bridging the gap between potential and achievement.
• The Naturalness Bias: Research by Chia-Jung Tsay revealed a hidden preference for individuals perceived as naturally talented over those who achieve success through hard work, despite surveys indicating a greater emphasis on effort in achieving success.
• Scott Barry Kaufman's Story: Scott Barry Kaufman, initially labeled as a slow learner, defied expectations and achieved academic success through his determination and effort, highlighting the limitations of relying solely on measures of talent.
• The Talent Mindset and Its Limitations: The emphasis on talent in organizations like McKinsey & Company can lead to a culture that prioritizes short-term performance over long-term learning and growth, as exemplified by the Enron scandal.

Effort Counts Twice

• The Mundanity of Excellence: The accomplishments of high achievers are often the result of countless small, ordinary actions performed consistently and correctly over time.
• Talent and the Allure of Mystery: The tendency to attribute exceptional performance to innate talent is partly due to the desire to believe in the magical and extraordinary, rather than acknowledging the role of sustained effort.
• Nietzsche on Talent and Effort: Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche argued against the notion of innate talent and emphasized the importance of focused, consistent effort and deliberate practice in achieving greatness.
• A Theory of Achievement: The author proposes a theory suggesting that achievement is a function of both talent and effort, with effort playing a dual role in building skill and making it productive.
• Examples of Effort and Achievement: Examples of individuals like potter Warren MacKenzie and writer John Irving illustrate how effort and perseverance contribute to skill development and achievement over time.
• Will Smith on Talent and Skill: Actor and musician Will Smith emphasizes the importance of hard work and dedication in developing skill and achieving success.
• The Treadmill Test and Mental Health: A longitudinal study by George Vaillant found that performance on a treadmill test measuring stamina and willpower predicted psychological adjustment in later life, highlighting the significance of effort and perseverance.
• The Importance of Showing Up: Consistent effort and follow-through are crucial for achieving goals and sticking to commitments.

How Gritty Are You?

• Understanding Grit: Grit encompasses both passion and perseverance. Passion involves sustained commitment to long-term goals, while perseverance refers to the ability to overcome setbacks and continue working hard.
• The Grit Scale: The chapter provides a self-assessment tool, the Grit Scale, to measure an individual's level of grit.
• Passion as a Compass: Passion is not simply intense enthusiasm but rather a steady, enduring devotion to a long-term goal, guiding an individual's actions and decisions.
• Goal Hierarchies and Grit: Gritty individuals have well-organized goal hierarchies, where lower-level goals are aligned with and support the pursuit of a top-level, ultimate concern.
• Prioritizing Goals: Prioritization involves identifying the most interesting and important goals and aligning them with a central purpose.
• Flexibility and Perseverance: Gritty individuals demonstrate flexibility in pursuing lower-level goals, adapting and changing course when necessary while remaining committed to their overall objectives.
• Catharine Cox's Study of Geniuses: Psychologist Catharine Cox's research on historical geniuses found that persistence of motive, encompassing passion and perseverance, was a key differentiator between the most and least eminent individuals.

Grit Grows

• Nature and Nurture: Both genetics and environment play a role in shaping traits like grit and talent.
• Heritability of Grit: Studies on twins suggest that grit has a heritable component, but a significant portion of the variation in grit is also influenced by experience.
• The Flynn Effect: The Flynn effect, which refers to the observed rise in IQ scores over time, provides evidence of the substantial impact of environment and experience on cognitive abilities.
• Grit and Age: Grit tends to increase with age, suggesting that individuals develop greater passion and perseverance as they gain life experiences and learn from challenges.
• The Maturity Principle: Personality traits, including grit, evolve over time as individuals mature and adapt to new circumstances.
• Reasons for Quitting: Individuals often quit pursuits due to boredom, perceived lack of value, or a sense of inability, but gritty individuals tend to persevere through challenges and maintain their commitment to their goals.
• Psychological Assets of Grit: Gritty individuals possess four key psychological assets: interest, the capacity to practice, purpose, and hope. These assets can be developed and strengthened over time.

Interest

• Following Your Passion: The importance of pursuing work that aligns with one's interests is a common theme in commencement speeches and advice from successful individuals.
• Benefits of Interest-Fit: Research shows that individuals experience greater job satisfaction, improved performance, and increased well-being when their work aligns with their personal interests.
• Passion Development: Passion for work is not typically an instant discovery but rather a gradual process of exploration, development, and deepening over time.
• The Role of Experience: Interests are triggered and developed through interactions with the external world, requiring experimentation and exposure to new experiences.
• Importance of Support: Supportive environments, including encouraging parents, teachers, and mentors, play a crucial role in fostering and sustaining interests.
• Deepening Interests: Gritty individuals develop the ability to appreciate nuances and complexities within their chosen field, maintaining a sense of novelty and preventing boredom.
• From Discovery to Development: The chapter provides guidance on discovering, developing, and deepening interests, encouraging individuals to explore their curiosities and actively cultivate their passions.

Practice

• Grit and Practice: Grittier individuals tend to engage in more deliberate practice, leading to improved skills and better performance.
• Deliberate Practice: Deliberate practice involves setting specific goals, focusing intently, seeking immediate feedback, and repeating and refining skills with reflection.
• The 10,000-Hour Rule: Research by Anders Ericsson suggests that achieving expertise in a domain typically requires approximately ten thousand hours of deliberate practice.
• Effort and Enjoyment: While deliberate practice can be effortful and challenging, gritty individuals tend to experience it as more enjoyable than less gritty individuals.
• Flow and Deliberate Practice: Flow, a state of complete absorption and effortless performance, is distinct from deliberate practice but often follows from it.
• Preparation and Performance: Deliberate practice is essential for skill development and preparation, while flow is a characteristic of optimal performance.
• Rowdy Gaines on Practice and Passion: Olympic swimmer Rowdy Gaines describes his dislike for the effortful aspects of practice but emphasizes his overall passion for swimming and the rewards of training.
• The Experience of Deliberate Practice: The subjective experience of deliberate practice can be positive and rewarding for gritty individuals who embrace challenges and value self-improvement.
• Optimizing Deliberate Practice: The chapter provides recommendations for making deliberate practice more effective and enjoyable, including understanding the science of skill development, establishing routines, and cultivating a growth mindset.

Purpose

• Purpose as Motivation: Purpose, the intention to contribute to the well-being of others, is a powerful source of motivation for gritty individuals.
• From Interest to Purpose: Individuals often transition from self-oriented interests to a more other-centered purpose as they develop their skills and see the impact of their work on others.
• The Three Phases of Development: Psychologist Benjamin Bloom's model of talent development includes a later phase where individuals connect their work to a larger purpose and meaning.
• Examples of Purposeful Grit: Examples of individuals like art activist Jane Golden and wine critic Antonio Galloni illustrate how a sense of purpose enhances passion and perseverance.
• Purpose and Pleasure: Gritty individuals score higher on measures of purpose than on measures of pleasure-seeking, indicating a greater emphasis on contributing to the well-being of others.
• Gritty Villains vs. Gritty Heroes: While it is possible for individuals with negative intentions to exhibit grit, the majority of gritty individuals are driven by a desire to make a positive impact on the world.
• Jobs, Careers, and Callings: The distinction between jobs, careers, and callings lies in the individual's perception of their work and its connection to a larger purpose.
• Joe Leader's Journey to a Calling: The story of Joe Leader, a senior vice president at NYC Transit, demonstrates the transition from a job to a career to a calling as he developed his passion for engineering and recognized the impact of his work on others.
• Michael Baime and Mindfulness: The journey of Michael Baime, a professor of internal medicine and mindfulness expert, illustrates the integration of personal interest and purpose in finding one's calling.
• Self-Interest and Prosocial Motivation: Research by Adam Grant and David Yeager suggests that individuals who combine self-oriented and other-oriented motivations tend to be more successful and find greater meaning in their work.
• From Poverty to Purpose: The story of Kat Cole, president of Cinnabon, highlights the influence of a purposeful role model (her mother) and the development of a passion for helping others.
• Cultivating Purpose: The chapter offers strategies for cultivating a sense of purpose, including reflecting on the impact of one's work, job crafting, and finding inspiration in purposeful role models.

Hope

• Hope and Grit: Hope, a rising-to-the-occasion form of perseverance, is essential for maintaining grit in the face of setbacks and challenges.
• Learned Helplessness: Research by Martin Seligman and Steve Maier demonstrated that a sense of helplessness can be learned when individuals experience uncontrollable negative events.
• Learned Optimism: Optimists tend to attribute setbacks to temporary and specific causes, while pessimists view them as permanent and pervasive, leading to differences in resilience and perseverance.
• Optimism and Achievement: Studies show that optimists tend to perform better in various domains, including academics, health, and relationships.
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) helps individuals identify and modify negative thought patterns and behaviors, promoting a more optimistic outlook and increasing resilience.
• Growth Mindset and Hope: A growth mindset, the belief that abilities can be developed through effort, is associated with greater optimism and perseverance.
• Modeling a Growth Mindset: The actions and responses of parents, teachers, and other authority figures can influence the development of a growth mindset in children.
• The Fragile Perfects: Individuals who experience consistent success early in life may be more vulnerable to setbacks later on if they lack experience with failure and have not developed a growth mindset.
• Kayvon Asemani's Story: The story of Kayvon Asemani, a student at the University of Pennsylvania, exemplifies resilience and a growth mindset in the face of adversity.
• Cultivating Hope: The chapter provides strategies for developing hope, including understanding the neuroplasticity of the brain, practicing optimistic self-talk, and seeking support from mentors and role models.

Parenting for Grit

• Parenting Styles and Grit: Different parenting styles can influence the development of grit in children.
• Authoritarian vs. Permissive Parenting: Authoritarian parenting emphasizes strict rules and high expectations, while permissive parenting prioritizes warmth and autonomy.
• Wise Parenting: Psychologically wise parenting, which combines warmth, respect, and high standards, is associated with positive outcomes for children, including greater grit.
• Steve Young's Upbringing: The story of Steve Young, a Hall of Fame quarterback, illustrates the role of demanding but supportive parenting in fostering perseverance and resilience.
• The Importance of Context: The interpretation of parenting behaviors by children is crucial, and what may appear authoritarian to an outsider may be experienced as supportive and encouraging by the child.
• Francesca Martinez's Story: The story of Francesca Martinez, a comedian with cerebral palsy, highlights the importance of unconditional love and support in fostering passion and perseverance.
• Imitation vs. Emulation: Young children tend to imitate their parents, but as they mature, they develop the capacity to emulate the qualities they admire.
• Modeling Grit: Parents who demonstrate passion and perseverance for their own goals provide positive role models for their children.
• The Influence of Mentors: Mentors and teachers can play a significant role in fostering grit in young people, providing support, challenge, and opportunities for growth.
• The Importance of a Decent Childhood: Children, regardless of their background, need a supportive and nurturing environment to develop their potential and cultivate grit.
• Cody Coleman's Story: The story of Cody Coleman, an MIT graduate who overcame a challenging childhood, emphasizes the transformative power of supportive mentors and the importance of a growth mindset.
• The Hard Thing Rule: The Hard Thing Rule, which encourages children to pursue challenging activities while allowing them to choose their own pursuits, is a strategy for fostering grit in a supportive and empowering way.

The Playing Fields of Grit

• Extracurricular Activities and Grit: Extracurricular activities provide opportunities for children to develop grit by fostering interest, practice, purpose, and hope.
• Challenge and Enjoyment: Extracurricular activities offer a unique combination of challenge and intrinsic motivation, which can be difficult to find in other settings.
• Long-Term Benefits: Research suggests that participation in extracurricular activities is associated with positive long-term outcomes, including higher educational attainment, increased volunteerism, and better job prospects.
• The Personal Qualities Project: A longitudinal study by Warren Willingham found that follow-through in high school extracurriculars was a strong predictor of success in college and beyond.
• The Grit Grid: The Grit Grid, a measure of multiyear commitment and advancement in extracurricular activities, predicts college persistence and teacher effectiveness.
• The Corresponsive Principle: The corresponsive principle suggests that personality traits influence the situations individuals choose, and these situations, in turn, reinforce and amplify those traits.
• Extracurriculars and College Admissions: Follow-through in extracurricular activities is valued by college admissions offices as an indicator of grit and potential for success.
• The Importance of Opportunity: Access to extracurricular activities is often unequal, with students from low-income backgrounds facing greater barriers to participation.
• Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem Children's Zone: Geoffrey Canada's work with the Harlem Children's Zone highlights the importance of providing a "decent childhood" for children in poverty, including access to extracurricular activities.
• Learned Industriousness: Psychologist Robert Eisenberger's research demonstrates that the association between effort and reward can be learned, leading to increased industriousness and perseverance.
• The Role of Coaches and Teachers: Coaches and teachers can play a crucial role in creating environments that foster learned industriousness and grit in children.

A Culture of Grit

• Culture and Grit: The culture in which individuals live and work can significantly influence their level of grit.
• Gritty Cultures: Gritty cultures, like those found in organizations like the Seattle Seahawks and JPMorgan Chase, emphasize values such as perseverance, passion, and excellence.
• The Importance of Teams: Joining a gritty team or organization can enhance an individual's grit through conformity and shared norms and values.
• Culture and Identity: Over time, the values and norms of a culture can become internalized, shaping an individual's identity and influencing their choices and actions.
• Decision-Making and Identity: Gritty individuals often make decisions based on their sense of identity rather than a calculated analysis of costs and benefits.
• Sisu and the Finnish Spirit: The concept of sisu in Finnish culture exemplifies the belief in inner strength and perseverance in the face of adversity.
• Creating a Culture of Grit: Leaders can foster a culture of grit by communicating core values, setting high standards, providing support, and modeling grit themselves.
• Anson Dorrance and the Competitive Cauldron: Coach Anson Dorrance's approach to building a culture of grit at the University of North Carolina's women's soccer team involves emphasizing core values, encouraging deliberate practice, and fostering a growth mindset.
• West Point's Developmental Culture: West Point's shift from an attrition model to a developmental model of leadership, which emphasizes support and respect, has contributed to a decline in dropout rates and the development of stronger, more capable leaders.
• The Seattle Seahawks and the Culture of Competition: The Seattle Seahawks, under the leadership of Pete Carroll, have cultivated a culture of grit that emphasizes competition, perseverance, and continuous improvement.

Conclusion

• Growing Grit: Grit can be developed both from the inside out, through individual effort and mindset, and from the outside in, through supportive and challenging environments.
• Grit and Happiness: Research suggests that grit is positively correlated with happiness and well-being.
• The Plurality of Character: Grit is an important aspect of character but not the only one. Other virtues, such as self-control, gratitude, and curiosity, also contribute to a fulfilling and successful life.
• Limits and Potential: While individuals may face limitations in talent and opportunity, grit enables them to push beyond self-imposed limits and strive for excellence.
• The Power of Failure: Failure is an inevitable part of the journey toward excellence, and gritty individuals view setbacks as opportunities for growth and learning.
• The Essence of Grit: Grit involves sustained passion and perseverance for long-term goals, working hard even when faced with challenges and setbacks.