Grit by Angela Duckworth | Book Recaps
Read to get quick, five-minute recap of Grit by Angela Duckworth.
Hello, my name is Angel Gunaman. As I’m embarking upon my senior year of high school, I’ve been on a quest to find the secrets to future success. Having read this book during the summer before my eighth-grade year, I opted to re-read it, refreshing as much of my knowledge as possible. Here is a summary of my biggest takeaways from this book. Enjoy!
Full Overview
Grit by Dr. Angela Duckworth debunks the idea of how God-given talents determine one’s success. Dr. Duckworth, an award-winning American Psychologist, backs her claim up with studies and evidence upon how grit, is the main contributing factor of success.
Grit: Passion and perseverance for long-term goals
🏃🏻♀️ Lesson #1 — Effort is Essential
Dr. Duckworth writes how talent and skill, though often mixed up in common language, are two very different concepts. While talent is something one is inherently born with, skill is something obtained through meticulous hours of training and practice. In order to truly develop one’s talent into skill, effort is what has to take place.
This is the equation for achievement that Dr. Angela Duckworth developed.
Talent x Effort = Skill
Skill x Effort = Achievement
Dr. Duckworth uses evidence from a prior study to support her claim. She mentions a 1940 study done by Harvard University, where 130 sophomores were asked to run on a treadmill for up to five minutes. The treadmill was set up at a such a steep angle and at at a certain speed to which the average man is only able to stay running for four minutes. The scientists measured the lengths each student maintained a running pace, and adjusted it for baseline physical fitness. By doing this, they were solely measuring for “stamina” and “strength of will.”
Many decades later, a scientist named George Valliant followed up with the original students who took part in this study. Researchers noted their income, career advancement, social activities, self-reported satisfaction, and many more. In conclusion, Valliant claimed that the students who had the grit to stay on the treadmill for beyond the average times were ones who were psychologically well-adjusted throughout adulthood. (Meaning, they were more satisfied with their work lives, they engaged in meaningful social activities, and experienced more career advancement.) Therefore, the grittier people were more successful.
How does this relate to effort? People who have the grit to develop their talents (whether they have any or not,) are putting in effort. Once they have cultivated a skill, maintaining a gritty attitude and adding more effort to develop the skill, allows them reach achievement.
Because the people who stayed on the treadmill for longer displayed more grit, they are more likely to put in the effort required for success, supporting Dr. Duckworth’s claim.
🧡 Lesson #2 — How do people discover their passions?
Oftentimes, as youth we hear older people telling us that we should follow our passions. Now, what do you do when you’re not sure what your passion is? Is it possible to cultivate a passion on your own? Dr. Duckworth leads us through the science of passion-discovery to unravel the answers to the questions above.
First, she starts with some examples of successful figures. Namely, Jeff Bezos, who displayed an early interest in engineering, was often encouraged by his mother in his day-to-day life to never stop exploring. In high school Jeff turned his family garage into lab for experimenting and engineering. When his mother got a phone call informing her that Jeff had been skipping his high school classes to study airplanes with a local professor, she opted to find an effective way to allow him to pursue his interests while still staying in school.
Now what led Bezos to cultivate and explore such a passion? To discover that, Dr. Angela Duckworth consulted a well-known psychologist, Paul Sylvia. He claims that the starting of one’s passions starts with discovery. Discovery could be a long process, and it often comes with a lot of trial and error. But, once you find something you’re interested in, the next step is to pursue it, exploring all the avenues it can take you.
Unlike what we’d desire, the discovery of passions don’t occur like the coveted “lightbulb moment.” It takes regular exposure to topic of interest as well as encouragement from others in order to discover a passion in someone. Once someone is self-encouraged to pursue a certain field/topic on their own, that is when passion takes form.
👨👩👧👦 Lesson #3 — How can parents cultivate grit in their kids?
For all the prospective parents reading this book, they’re always questioning how they can set their children up for success. I mean, what parent doesn’t want their child to be successful?
Dr. Angela Duckworth explains that parents who are demanding but supportive are the ones who often ones who are able to cultivate grit within their children. These parents are termed “Wise Parents” in the book. But, why is that the case? After displaying more studies and pointing out examples from successful parents, Dr. Duckworth provides a simple answer: because kids emulate their parents.
Growing up with parents who support their kids, respect them, and hold them to high standards encourages their children to copy their behaviors. When parents are loving, supportive, and demanding, children tend to follow their example and revere it.
So, if you desire to raise children with exceptional grit, in essence, you have to display grit in your day-to-day life as well. In other words, you should display passion for what you do, strive/put in effort to always improve, and never fall back when life turns a different direction. That is how you cultivate grit in your children.
Alright, you’ve reached the end of my book recap. I hope this was useful, and I highly encourage you to purchase and read it if you haven’t. Thank you!
~Angel
Citations:
Duckworth, A. (2019). Grit. Vermilion.