Angela Duckworth - Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

Praise for Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

Profoundly important. For eons, weve been trapped inside the myth of innate talent. Angela Duckworth shines a bright light into a truer understanding of how we achieve. We owe her a great debt.

David Shenk, author of The Genius in All of Us: New Insights into Genetics, Talent, and IQ

Enlightening... Grit teaches that lifes high peaks arent necessarily conquered by the naturally nimble but, rather, by those willing to endure, wait out the storm, and try again.

Ed Viesturs, seven-time climber of Mount Everest and author of No Shortcuts to the Top

Masterful... Grit offers a truly sane perspective: that true success comes when we devote ourselves to endeavors that give us joy and purpose.

Arianna Huffington, author of Thrive

Readable, compelling, and totally persuasive. The ideas in this book have the potential to transform education, management, and the way its readers live. Angela Duckworths Grit is a national treasure.

Lawrence H. Summers, former secretary of the treasury and President Emeritus at Harvard University

Fascinating. Angela Duckworth pulls together decades of psychological research, inspiring success stories from business and sports, and her own unique personal experience and distills it all into a set of practical strategies to make yourself and your children more motivated, more passionate, and more persistent at work and at school.

Paul Tough, author of How Children Succeed

A thoughtful and engaging exploration of what predicts success. Grit takes on widespread misconceptions and predictors of what makes us strive harder and push further... Duckworths own story, wound throughout her research, ends up demonstrating her theory best: passion and perseverance make up grit.

Tory Burch, chairman, CEO and designer of Tory Burch

An important book... In these pages, the leading scholarly expert on the power of grit (what my mom called stick-to-it-iveness) carries her message to a wider audience, using apt anecdotes and aphorisms to illustrate how we can usefully apply her insights to our own lives and those of our kids.

Robert D. Putnam, professor of public policy at Harvard University and author of Bowling Alone and Our Kids

Empowering... Angela Duckworth compels attention with her idea that regular individuals who exercise self-control and perseverance can reach as high as those who are naturally talentedthat your mindset is as important as your mind.

Soledad OBrien, chairman of Starfish Media Group and former coanchor of CNNs American Morning

Invaluable... In a world where access to knowledge is unprecedented, this book describes the key trait of those who will optimally take advantage of it. Grit will inspire everyone who reads it to stick to something hard that they have a passion for.

Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy

I love an idea that challenges our conventional wisdom and Grit does just that! Put aside what you think you know about getting ahead and outlasting your competition, even if they are more talented. Getting smarter wont help yousticking with it will!

Simon Sinek, author of Start With Why and Leaders Eat Last

Incredibly important... There is deeply embodied grit, which is born of love, purpose, truth to ones core under ferocious heat, and a relentless passion for what can only be revealed on the razors edge; and there is the cool, patient, disciplined cultivation and study of resilience that can teach us all how to get there. Angela Duckworths masterpiece straddles both worlds, offering a level of nuance that I havent read before.

Josh Waitzkin, international chess master, Tai Chi Push Hands world champion, and author of The Art of Learning

A combination of rich science, compelling stories, crisp graceful prose, and appealingly personal examples... Without a doubt, this is the most transformative, eye-opening book Ive read this year.

Sonja Lyubomirsky, professor, University of California, Riverside and author of The How of Happiness

This book gets into your head, which is where it belongs... For educators who want our kids to succeed, this is an indispensable read.

Joel Klein, former chancellor, New York City public schools

Grit delivers! Angela Duckworth shares the stories, the science, and the positivity behind sustained success... A must-read.

Barbara Fredrickson, author of Positivity and Love 2.0 and president of the International Positive Psychology Association

When I pick up a book for the first time, I immediately flip to the Acknowledgments. Like many readers, Im eager to peek behind the curtain; I want to meet the cast and crew responsible for the show. Writing my own book has only deepened my appreciation for the team effort that any work represents. If you like this book, please know that credit for its creation is shared among the wonderful human beings recognized here. Its time for these many supporters to step out into the footlights for a moment and take a well-deserved bow. If Ive left anyone in the wings, I apologize; any omissions are inadvertent.

First and foremost, I want to thank my collaborators. I wrote this book in the first-person singular, using I when, in fact, pretty much everything Ive done as a researcher or writer was accomplished by a plurality. The we who deserve creditin particular coauthors on published researchare named individually in the Notes. On their behalf, I extend a heartfelt thanks to our research teams who, collectively, made this research possible.

As for the book itself, I have three individuals to thank in particular: First and foremost, I am eternally grateful to my editor, Rick Horgan, who improved my writing and thinking more than I thought was possible. If Im lucky, hell let me work with him again (and again). Max Nesterak was my day-to-day editor, research assistant, and conscience. Put simply, were it not for Max, this book would not be in your hands today. And, finally, my fairy godfather and agent, Richard Pine, is the person who originally, and finally, made this book a reality. Eight years ago, Richard wrote me an email asking, Has anyone ever told you that you ought to write a book? I demurred. Gritty and gallant, he kept asking, but never pushing, until I was ready. Thank you, Richard, for everything.

The following scholars were kind enough to review drafts of this book, discuss their relevant work, or bothof course, any errors that remain are mine: Elena Bodrova, Mihly Cskszentmihlyi, Dan Chambliss, Jean Ct, Sidney DMello, Bill Damon, Nancy Darling, Carol Dweck, Bob Eisenberger, Anders Ericsson, Lauren Eskreis-Winkler, Ronald Ferguson, James Flynn, Brian Galla, Margo Gardner, Adam Grant, James Gross, Tim Hatton, Jerry Kagan, Scott Barry Kaufman, Dennis Kelly, Emilia Lahti, Reed Larson, Luc Leger, Deborah Leong, Susan Mackie, Steve Maier, Mike Matthews, Darrin McMahon, Barbara Mellers, Cal Newport, Gabrielle Oettingen, Daeun Park, Pat Quinn, Ann Renninger, Brent Roberts, Todd Rogers, James Rounds, Barry Schwartz, Marty Seligman, Paul Silvia, Larry Steinberg, Rong Su, Phil Tetlock, Chia-Jung Tsay, Eli Tsukayama, Elliot Tucker-Drob, George Vaillant, Rachel White, Dan Willingham, Warren Willingham, Amy Wrzesniewski, and David Yeager.

I was shocked, and so deeply moved, that the following individuals were willing to share their stories for this book; even when I wasnt able to include details in the book itself, their perspectives deepened my understanding of grit and its development: Hemalatha Annamalai, Kayvon Asemani, Michael Baime, Jo Barsh, Mark Bennett, Jackie Bezos, Juliet Blake, Geoffrey Canada, Pete Carroll, Robert Caslen, Ulrik Christensen, Kerry Close, Roxanne Coady, Kat Cole, Cody Coleman, Daryl Davis, Joe de Sena, Tom Deierlein, Jamie Dimon, Anson Dorrance, Aurora Fonte, Franco Fonte, Bill Fitzsimmons, Rowdy Gaines, Antonio Galloni, Bruce Gemmell, Jeffrey Gettleman, Jane Golden, Temple Grandin, Mike Hopkins, Rhonda Hughes, Michael Joyner, Noa Kageyama, Paige Kimble, Sasha Kosanic, Hester Lacey, Emilia Lahti, Terry Laughlin, Joe Leader, Michael Lomax, David Luong, Tobi Ltke, Warren MacKenzie, Willy MacMullen, Bob Mankoff, Alex Martinez, Francesca Martinez, Tina Martinez, Duff McDonald, Bill McNabb, Bernie Noe, Valerie Rainford, Mads Rasmussen, Anthony Seldon, Will Shortz, Chantel Smith, Are Traasdahl, Marc Vetri, Chris Wink, Grit Young, Sherry Young, Steve Young, Sam Zell, and Kai Zhang.