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A Summary and Review of Grit by Angela Duckworth
My Takeaways and Opinion on Grit
Grit by Angela Duckworth was a fantastic read and I’m excited to share a summary and review of it with you.
Grit is broken down into three parts:
- What Grit Is and Why It Matters
- Growing Grit from the Inside Out
- Growing Grit from the Outside In
Within these three parts, there are thirteen chapters in total that I will dive into in more detail below.
Part 1: What Grit Is and Why It Matters
Chapter 1: Showing Up
In any field, the most successful people are lucky and talented. High achievers keep going after failures, stick things out, are constantly driven to improve, and are “paragons of perseverance.”
In research on high achievers, it’s been found that, for high achievers, there wasn’t a realistic expectation of ever catching up to their ambitions. In their own eyes, high achievers were never good enough. They were the opposite of complacent and were satisfied with being unsatisfied. The highest achievers had a passion for enduring and wouldn’t think of giving up.
The most successful people have a ferocious determination that plays out in two ways. First, they’re unusually resilient and hardworking. Second, they know in a very deep way what it is that they want. They had not only determination, but direction.
The highest achievers have grit. Grit is a combination of passion and perseverance.
Talent says nothing about grit. Our potential is one thing, but what we do with it is another.
Chapter 2: Distracted by Talent
Aptitude doesn’t guarantee achievement. The most talented students don’t always get the best grades. Effort can be more important than talent.
Charles Darwin believed that zeal and hard work are ultimately more important than intellectual ability. For humans, there often exists a gap between potential and actualization.
As a society, we say that we care more about effort than talent, but we actually believe talent…
