Achieve success through perseverance

Who came up with grit?

The reason why some people achieve success while others don't has been a matter of speculation for centuries. Is it a question of luck? It is genetic? According to Angela Duckworth, psychologist and a lecturer at the University of Pensylvannia, the secret to excellence is mainly a question of attitude, and enormous doses of effort, enthusiasm and consistency. That may sound easy, but it isn't.

After replicating the study in other social settings with identical results, Duckworth concluded that passion and perseverance are key to achieving any long-term objective, more than talent, intelligence and any other human capacity. Duckworth's theory confirms that effort counts twice: Talent + effort = skill and skill + effort = success. This means that you can, in fact, train yourself in grit.

Developing grit

This finding won Duckworth a MacArthur Foundation genius grant in 2013 as a reward for her work. The same year, she presented her theory and co-founded The Character Lab, a scientific NGO providing parents and teachers with practical advice. In 2016, she published her work in a book entitled Grit. The power of passion and perseverance, which soon become a bestseller.

In her book, she explains her research method: The grit scale. This simple test consists of ten questions where participants score their current grit on a scale of one to five, since this score can go up or down in time. The book also explains the four psychological components of grit: they're interested, they practice, they have purpose and hope.

Duckworth compares life to running the 10,000 metres, which requires resilience to reach the finish line. "If you stay down, you lose grit. If you get up, you win", insists the psychologist, who went from overcoming her father's criticism to earning recognition from the scientific community for her work.

Tips for boosting your grit

• Nurture your interests. Investigate, experiment and don't stop until you find something that really motivates you. If something intrigues you, try it!
• Set yourself challenges. Put yourself to the test every day to sharpen your skills and practice constantly until you master them.
• Find a purpose. Give meaning to your actions, think about how you can benefit others and what you can do for the common good.
• Be confident. When things don't go your way, don't feel despondent and give up. Look on difficulties and face them calmly, enthusiastically and with conviction.

Examples of grit and the boom in its appreciation 

Duckworth herself is, therefore, an example of what it means to have grit, as are elite athletes like Rafa Nadal. During his talks, his uncle and trainer, Toni Nadal, says the secret of the number-one Mallorca-born tennis star's success is not his talent, but his stamina, willingness to improve, and determination. There are also examples of grit outside the sports world. J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was turned down by twelve publishers, Steven Spielberg was rejected three times by the Southern California School of Theater, Film and Television and Bill Gates's first business project, Traf-O-Data, was a failure. The rest is history.

The predictive potential of the grit scale has been particularly relevant in the educational field, due to the limitations of IQ tests to predict student performance. Several studies have revealed that talent and IQ alone are not enough to accurately predict, for example, whether a student will drop out of school.

In this regard, the PISA Report, which assesses academic performance among teenagers around the world, is giving increasing weight to non-cognitive abilities, and shows that this does not only apply to the best students, but also those who stand out for their determination. Even Andreas Schliecher, the architect of PISA, insists on this idea in his book First class.