Grit (39 page)

Many friends and family members helped improve earlier drafts. For their invaluable comments, I thank Steve Arnold, Ben Malcolmson, Erica Dewan, Feroz Dewan, Joe Duckworth, Jordan Ellenberg, Ira Handler, Donald Kamentz, Annette Lee, Susan Lee, Dave Levin, Felicia Lewis, Alyssa Matteucci, David Meketon, Evan Nesterak, Rick Nichols, Rebecca Nyquist, Tanya Schlam, Robert Seyfarth, Naomi Shavin, Paul Solman, Danny Southwick, Sharon Parker, Dominic Randolph, Richard Shell, Paolo Terni, Paul Tough, Amy Wax, and Rich Wilson.

The figures in this book are courtesy of Stephen Few. A world expert on data visualization, Stephen is also the soul of generosity and patience.

I am immensely grateful for the unflagging support of so many outstanding individuals at Simon & Schuster. The only hard thing about writing this book was the writing; everything else, these remarkable folks made easy. In particular, I’d like to thank Nan Graham, whose optimism, energy, and genuine affection for her authors have no parallel. Katie Monaghan and Brian Belfiglio masterfully orchestrated a world-class publicity campaign, ensuring that this book would end up in your hands. For masterful handling of this book’s production, I thank Carla Benton and her team. David Lamb, you’re a total pro; your commitment to excellence at every stage of the editorial process made all the difference. And, finally, for this book’s beautiful cover, I am grateful to Jaya Miceli.

Huge thanks to the world-class team at InkWell Management, including Eliza Rothstein, Lindsey Blessing, and Alexis Hurley. You handle so much so well, and with utter grace and professionalism.

Like the grit paragons profiled in this book, I’ve benefited from especially supportive and demanding teachers. Matthew Carr taught me to write and to love words. Kay Merseth reminded me, at so many critical junctures, that each of us is the author of our own life story. Marty Seligman taught me that the right question is at least as important as the right answer. The late Chris Peterson showed me that a true teacher is one who puts students first. Sigal Barsade showed me, in innumerable ways, what it means to be a professor and how to be a good one. Walter Mischel showed me that at its apogee, science is an art. And Jim Heckman taught me that genuine curiosity is the best companion to true grit.

I am deeply grateful to the institutions and individuals who have supported my research, including the National Institute on Aging, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Pinkerton Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the KIPP Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the Lone Pine Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, the Richard King Mellon Family Foundation, the University of Pennsylvania Research Foundation, Acco Brands, the Michigan Retirement Research Center, the University of Pennsylvania, Melvyn and Carolyn Miller, Ariel Kor, and Amy Abrams.

The board and staff of the Character Lab deserve special thanks because they are the past, present, and most definitely the future of all I do.

And, finally, thank you to my family. Amanda and Lucy, your patience, good humor, and stories made this book possible. Mom and Dad, you gave up everything for your children, and we love you for that. Jason, you make me a better person every day—this book is for you.

RECOMMENDED READING

Brooks, David.
The Road to Character.
New York: Random House, 2015.

Brown, Peter C., Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel.
Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning.
Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2014.

Damon, William.
The Path to Purpose: How Young People Find Their Calling in Life.
New York: Free Press, 2009.

Deci, Edward L. with Richard Flaste.
Why We Do What We Do: Understanding Self-Motivation.
New York: Penguin Group, 1995.

Duhigg, Charles.
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business.
New York: Random House, 2012.

Dweck, Carol.
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.
New York: Random House, 2006.

Emmons, Robert A.
Thanks!: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier.
New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007.

Ericsson, Anders and Robert Pool.
Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise.
New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016.

Heckman, James J., John Eric Humphries, and Tim Kautz (eds.).
The Myth of Achievement Tests: The GED and the Role of Character in American Life.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014.

Kaufman, Scott Barry and Carolyn Gregoire.
Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind.
New York: Perigee, 2015.

Lewis, Sarah.
The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 2014.

Matthews, Michael D.
Head Strong: How Psychology is Revolutionizing War.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.

McMahon, Darrin M.
Divine Fury: A History of Genius.
New York: Basic Books, 2013.

Mischel, Walter.
The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control.
New York: Little, Brown, 2014.

Oettingen, Gabriele.
Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation.
New York: Penguin Group, 2014.

Pink, Daniel H.
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.
New York: Riverhead Books, 2009.

Renninger, K. Ann and Suzanne E. Hidi.
The Power of Interest for Motivation and Engagement.
New York: Routledge, 2015.

Seligman, Martin E. P.
Learned Optimism: How To Change Your Mind and Your Life.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991.

Steinberg, Laurence.
Age of Opportunity: Lessons from the New Science of Adolescence.
New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014.

Tetlock, Philip E. and Dan Gardner.
Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction.
New York: Crown, 2015.

Tough, Paul.
How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character.
New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012.

Willingham, Daniel T.
Why Don’t Students Like School: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

PHOTO BY ZACH TERIS

Angela Duckworth is a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and a 2013 MacArthur Fellow. She studies grit and other attributes that predict success in life. A former middle and high school math teacher, Angela recently co-founded the Character Lab, a nonprofit whose mission is to advance the science and practice of character development in children.

MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT

SimonandSchuster.com

authors.simonandschuster.com/Angela-Duckworth

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NOTES

CHAPTER 1: SHOWING UP

more than 14,000 applicants:
For more information on West Point, including its admissions process, see
www.usma.edu
.

drop out before graduation
:
Data provided by the United States Military Academy.

“new cadet to Soldier”
:
“Information for New Cadets and Parents,” United States Military Academy–West Point, 2015,
www.usma.edu/parents/SiteAssets/Info-4-New-Cadets_Class-of-19.pdf
.

“West Point toughens you”
:
Ibid.

and who would leave
:
For more on Jerry’s views about predicting West Point outcomes, see Jerome Kagan,
An Argument for Mind
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006), 49–54.

West Point admissions
:
For more information on the Whole Candidate Score and its history, see Lawrence M. Hanser and Mustafa Oguz,
United States Service Academy Admissions: Selecting for Success at the Military Academy/West Point and as an Officer
(Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2015).

those with the lowest
:
Angela L. Duckworth, Christopher Peterson, Michael D. Matthews, and Dennis R. Kelly, “Grit: Perseverance and Passion for Long-term Goals,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
92 (2007): 1087–1101.

“I was tired, lonely, frustrated”
:
Michael D. Matthews,
Head Strong: How Psychology Is Revolutionizing War
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 16.

“never give up” attitude
:
Mike Matthews, professor of engineering psychology at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, in conversation with the author, May 25, 2015.

physical fitness marks
:
Hanser and Oguz,
Selecting for Success.

seventy-one cadets had dropped out:
Duckworth et al., “Grit.”

55 percent of the salespeople
:
Lauren Eskreis-Winkler, Elizabeth P. Shulman, Scott A. Beal, and Angela L. Duckworth, “The Grit Effect: Predicting Retention in the Military, the Workplace, School and Marriage,”
Frontiers in Psychology
5 (2014): 1–12.

graduate degree were grittier
:
Duckworth, et al., “Grit.”

as high as 80 percent
:
For more information on college dropout rates in the United States, see “Institutional Retention and Graduation Rates for Undergraduate Students,” National Center for Education Statistics, last updated May 2015,
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cva.asp
.

“where we decide”
:
Dick Couch,
Chosen Soldier: The Making of a Special Forces Warrior
(New York: Three Rivers Press, 2007), 108.

42 percent of the candidates
:
Eskreis-Winkler et al., “The Grit Effect.”

Success in the military, business, and education
:
Ibid. Importantly, the bivariate associations between grit and outcomes were in all cases significant as well.

to all 273 spellers
:
Duckworth et al., “Grit.”

SAT scores and grit
:
Ibid. See also Kennon M. Sheldon, Paul E. Jose, Todd B. Kashdan, and Aaron Jarden, “Personality, Effective Goal-Striving, and Enhanced Well-Being: Comparing 10 Candidate Personality Strengths,”
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
1 (2015), 1–11. In this one-year longitudinal study, grit emerged as a more reliable predictor of goal attainment than any other measured personality strength. Likewise, my colleagues Phil Tetlock and Barbara Mellers have found in their longitudinal research that people who forecast future events with astonishing accuracy are considerably grittier than others: “The strongest predictor of rising into the ranks of superforecasters is perpetual beta, the degree to which one is committed to belief updating and self-improvement. It is roughly three times as powerful a predictor as its closest rival, intelligence.” See Philip E. Tetlock and Dan Gardner,
Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction
(New York: Crown, 2015), page 192.