Summary and Analysis of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

Based on the Book by Angela Duckworth

Worth Books

• Publisher: Worth Books
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781504046763
• eBook ISBN: 9781504043779
• Topic: Study Aids
• Subtopic: Personal Success

So much to read, so little time? This brief overview of Grit tells you what you need to know—before or after you read Angela Duckworth's book.
 
Crafted and edited with care, Worth Books set the standard for quality and give you the tools you need to be a well-informed reader.
 
This short summary and analysis of Grit by Angela Duckworth includes:
 

• Historical context
• Chapter-by-chapter summaries
• Important quotes
• Fascinating trivia
• Glossary of terms
• Supporting material to enhance your understanding of the original work

 
About Angela Duckworth's Grit:
 
Psychologist Angela Duckworth blows the lid off of theories that suggest IQ and socioeconomic status are the sole predictors of success. Not intellectually gifted, according to her traditional, Asian-American father, Duckworth nevertheless became a MacArthur "Genius." Winning the award led her to reflect upon the qualities that got her there: perseverance and passion.
 
Interviewing dozens of the world's winners, Duckworth ventures into the playing fields of achievement, speaking with CEOs and coaches, and visits West Point, competitive swim teams, and even the National Spelling Bee to discover the common threads.
 
Pulling from history, as well as cutting-edge neuroscience and behavioral science, Grit offers tips and advice for everyone—from parents to athletes to entrepreneurs—about how getting gritty can help you to succeed.
 
The summary and analysis in this ebook are intended to complement your reading experience and bring you closer to a great work of nonfiction.
 

Summary

Preface

The author shares the fact that she grew up in a Chinese immigrant household with a father who prized intellect and talent above anything else. There was very little that Duckworth felt she could do to impress him. Her father frequently told her, “You know, you’re no genius,” and she internalized these put-downs. In school, she didn’t test highly enough for the gifted and talented program. Never feeling like she was particularly brilliant or skilled, she got by with hard work, dedication, and a commitment to everything she took on, eventually graduating from excellent universities. But it was only when she won a MacArthur Fellowship—often called a “genius grant”—that she had her light-bulb moment. She looked back on what had gotten her to where she was—a distinguished professor of psychology and a scholar who had attended some of the top schools in the world—and realized that so-called “genius” had little to do with it. It was about character. She knew she had a calling and she challenged herself every day. “I may not be the smartest person in the room, but I strive to be the grittiest,” she says.

Part I: What Grit Is and Why It Matters

Chapter 1: Showing Up

One of the most important characteristics of grit is refusing to quit. A gritty person shows up and sticks to the task at hand, no matter how hard it gets. It’s that “never give up” attitude that determines who stays in the race. This chapter starts with a description of what West Point cadets go through in their first months at the military academy. They’ve already reached high levels of academic achievement, with top scores on their SATs and ACTs. They’ve trained hard and passed the required physicals. They’ve gotten the glowing recommendations of congressmen and senators and beaten out more than 14,000 applicants in the admissions process. Only 1,200 are admitted and enrolled, and yet one in five of these high achievers drops out before graduation. In fact, most of those who quit do so during their first summer, when they must go through a rigorous seven-week training program known as Beast Barracks—or just Beast—with days of drills, marching, and calisthenics that begin at 5 a.m. and end at 10 p.m.

For generations, psychologists and West Point leaders had struggled to figure out why some of these impressive people got through that period and others quit. Examining what it takes to make it through Beast, and many other career challenges, Duckworth develops the Grit Scale, a test designed to rate the level of perseverance and passion of an individual. In 2004, West Point cadets were given the test, asked to agree or disagree with statements such as “I finish whatever I begin,” and “[My] interests change from year to year.” By the end of the Beast training, a pattern emerged: Those with the grittiest answers made it through.

Need to Know: The Grit Scale became an accurate predictor of success when applied to employees in sales, a profession where rejection is a daily, if not hourly, experience. It also worked for juniors in a Chicago public high school, Green Berets, and Scripps National Spelling Bee contestants. The conclusion? “Our potential is one thing. What we do with it is quite another.”

Chapter 2: Distracted by Talent

Examining some of the earliest treatises on what makes some people successful and others not, Duckworth cites a discussion between the founder of evolutionary theory, Charles Darwin, and his half cousin, Francis Galton. In 1869, Galton wrote a paper concluding that high achievers were remarkable for their combination of ability, zeal, and capacity for hard labor. Darwin agreed (although he actually considered natural talent to be the least important aspect of success). In 1907, psychologist William James furthered this hypothesis, making the observation that there is a gap between our potential and our achievements—we have the inner resources and intellect but we don’t work at the optimum level. Those few who do put in the effort to push their innate powers to the outer extremes, however, are very successful.

Duckworth’s point is that this notion is nothing new, and yet we’ve allowed ourselves to become sidetracked by talent, favoring the gifted over the strivers. She first noticed the importance of striving after she quit her job at McKinsey, a global management consulting firm, to teach middle school math to inner-city students. She noticed that the kids who didn’t grasp the mathematical formulas right away ultimately fared better in terms of grades than many of the more naturally gifted students. This surprised her, leading her to examine why those with less natural aptitud...

Table of contents

• Title
• Disclaimer
• Contents
• Context
• Overview
• Summary
• Cast of Characters
• Direct Quotes and Analysis
• Trivia
• What’s That Word?
• Critical Response
• About Angela Duckworth
• For Your Information
• Bibliography