Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

by Angela Duckworth

“Superlative performance is really a confluence of dozens of small skills or activities,2 each one learned or stumbled upon, which have been carefully drilled into habit and then are fitted together in a synthesized whole. There is nothing extraordinary or superhuman in any one of those actions; only the fact that they are done consistently and correctly, and all together, produce excellence.”

“Do not talk about giftedness, inborn talents! One can name great men of all kinds who were very little gifted.13 They acquired greatness, became ‘geniuses’ (as we put it)…. They all possessed that seriousness of the efficient workman which first learns to construct the parts properly before it ventures to fashion a great whole; they 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.”

interests are not discovered through introspection. Instead, interests are triggered by interactions with the outside world.

Grit depends on a different kind of hope. It rests on the expectation that our own efforts can improve our future. I have a feeling tomorrow will be better is different from I resolve to make tomorrow better. The hope that gritty people have has nothing to do with luck and everything to do with getting up again.1

it isn’t suffering that leads to hopelessness. It’s suffering you think you can’t control.