“Grit to Great” unlocks the secret to extraordinary success. Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval reveal how perseverance, passion, and pluck can transform ordinary individuals into high achievers. This game-changing book offers a fresh perspective on personal growth and achievement.
Discover how to unleash your hidden potential and achieve greatness. Read on to learn the key strategies for cultivating grit and transforming your life.
Table of Contents
Genres
Self-help, Personal Development, Success, Business, Motivation, Psychology, Leadership, Career Development, Inspirational, Productivity
“Grit to Great” explores the concept of grit as the key factor in achieving extraordinary success. The authors argue that talent and intelligence alone are insufficient for reaching one’s full potential. Instead, they emphasize the importance of perseverance, passion, and determination in overcoming obstacles and achieving long-term goals.
The book presents numerous examples of successful individuals who have demonstrated grit in various fields, from business to sports and the arts. These stories illustrate how ordinary people can achieve extraordinary results through consistent effort and resilience.
Thaler and Koval outline several strategies for developing grit, including:
- Embracing challenges and viewing failures as opportunities for growth
- Cultivating a growth mindset and believing in the power of improvement
- Setting clear goals and breaking them down into manageable steps
- Practicing deliberate, focused effort to improve skills
- Developing resilience and bouncing back from setbacks
- Finding purpose and passion in one’s pursuits
The authors also discuss the importance of grit in various aspects of life, including education, career advancement, and personal relationships. They provide practical exercises and tips for readers to assess and strengthen their own grit.
Review
“Grit to Great” offers a compelling argument for the importance of perseverance and passion in achieving success. The book’s strength lies in its accessible writing style and numerous real-life examples, which make the concepts relatable and inspiring.
Thaler and Koval effectively challenge the notion that innate talent is the primary determinant of success. Their focus on grit as a learnable skill provides hope and motivation for readers seeking to improve their lives and achieve their goals.
The book’s practical strategies and exercises are valuable tools for readers looking to develop their own grit. However, some readers might find certain concepts repetitive or overly simplified.
While the authors present a convincing case for the power of grit, the book could benefit from a more nuanced discussion of the role of external factors and privilege in achieving success. Additionally, some readers might desire more in-depth scientific research to support the authors’ claims.
Despite these minor shortcomings, “Grit to Great” remains an inspiring and motivational read. It serves as a valuable resource for anyone looking to cultivate resilience, perseverance, and passion in their personal and professional lives.
Introduction
If you think that your path is only determined by your intelligence or natural ability to learn quickly, think again. Grit is the new way to define how likely you are to succeed and identify what you need to work on to achieve your goals. Evolving views on this previously unsung character trait are changing how people learn and get hired. In this book summary, you’ll learn how grit separates the dreamers from the doers, and you’ll discover how to focus on growing your grit.
Why you should grow your grit to achieve your goals — and how to do just that.
READ THIS BOOK SUMMARY IF YOU:
- Feel like you dedicate a lot of effort to your life or career but aren’t making much progress
- Tend to get discouraged by trying new things that they don’t immediately work out
- Wonder how leading entrepreneurs, athletes, and artists succeed in their industry
People are naturally curious about what drives success stories. Whether it’s a natural knack for projecting business outcomes or an artistic ability discovered at a young age, there’s always one question about high-profile success: How did they do that?
The answer is through good, old-fashioned hard work — but with a twist. Emerging research shows that “grit”, or a combination of passion and drive, is the secret ingredient behind titans of innovation, including Apple and many professional athletes. Grit enables people to both take existing skills to the next level and acquire the drive to pursue something new.
Why Grit Matters
Though talent and education can give someone a head start, they’re only part of the equation: Having the drive to actually do something with your talents and skills separates people who have potential from those who excel. Notable achievers such as Steve Jobs and Michael Jordan were incredibly ordinary during their childhoods and early in their careers; they are two key examples of how relentless dedication leads to success.
New research shows that a combination of perseverance and passion are more valuable traits than innate talent or intelligence; this is the modern “grit.” Though grit may sound like a somewhat dated term, this personality trait is more relevant today than ever. Grit measures someone’s ability to do great work rather than just talk about it. It measures character and drive instead of charisma. The best part of grit is that you don’t need to be born with it because it’s learned. Over time, “gritty” people have learned the value of hard work and what it takes to succeed, and they’re happy to put in the effort to get results.
You’ve probably heard things about participation trophies and younger people’s sense of entitlement. It’s gradually become more normal for parents and educators to make every child feel they are exceptional. Though this is motivated by good intentions and boosts confidence, the reality is that it deemphasizes hard work and instead emphasizes the reward of getting by with minimal effort. Children who are told that they’re naturally good at something are more likely to neglect studying or practice.
Grit has four attributes:
- Guts: Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there.
- Resilience: Beat the odds and keep going.
- Initiative: Being a self-starter.
- Tenacity: Stay focused on a goal and work toward it.
Michael Jordan, one of the greatest basketball players of all time, summarizes his gratitude toward failure: “I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life, and that’s why I succeed.” In a field where natural talent is usually attributed to becoming a professional athlete, it’s important to hear his perspective on what it actually takes to make it.
The Talent Myth Psychologist Angela Duckworth runs a research program to better understand how to measure grit in children and how high grit scores contribute to their success. She developed a specific scale to measure grit, which also identifies the type and amount of assistance a child needs to achieve their goals. This research debunked the long-running theory that intelligence is the most important indicator for success; on the contrary, those with high IQs were accustomed to working less, so they were more likely to fail when asked to work on certain tasks outside their existing knowledge base. They were more likely to give up.
The changing conversation on intelligence versus grit affects one of the top tools for measuring academic success: standardized tests. Research such as Duckworth’s shows that high test scores don’t inherently mean that someone will be a great student or a high-performing employee. Google’s hiring process historically included submitting transcripts and SAT scores, but doing away with that policy has changed their workforce. Now, the tech giant is hiring a higher percentage of employees who didn’t even go to college.
One essential reason why grit is becoming more important is that it reflects character, and character is not a fixed quality; rather, it grows and evolves with new challenges and experiences. When someone knows the importance of not cutting corners, it shows in their work, and they’re able to develop a track record of sticking to this value. Grit leads to success by driving people to prepare, welcome challenges, and dedicate extra time to honing skills.
Ditch the Dream
Whether it’s a beach house or a certain number in your checking account, everyone uses dreams to picture success. Though this can be motivating in the short term, the reality is that fantasizing about success encourages a loss of motivation and causes more anxiety when you don’t meet those goals within a certain timeframe. You’re actually worse off by fantasizing about an ultimate goal because spending time on an idealized version of your future can trick you into thinking you’ve already reached your goals. Therefore, it’s more crushing when you find yourself in a position where you still have a lot of work to do.
Instead of dreaming of the ultimate outcome, focus on what the next step in your progress looks like. If you’re an aspiring filmmaker, your goal can be finishing the rough draft of a script. If you are starting your own business, it can be getting your first three clients. The first step is always the hardest, but starting with something that seems small will motivate you significantly more than spending time on success fantasies. Find a goal, start it, and stick to it. Then, evaluate what comes next.
Lose the Safety Net
People are taught to go into denial or fear in worst-case scenarios. From natural disasters to underperforming at work, the instinct is to avoid even picturing worstcase scenarios because they’re so awful. But if anything, you should plan for disaster to teach yourself to stop avoiding fear. Living a life dictated by fear or discomfort does not lead to success, and step one is to face rejection. Put yourself in a position to fail on a small scale, so you get used to the feeling and don’t feel crushed each and every time it happens.
Impostor syndrome haunts the tech industry, especially for women and people of color who are typically the minorities on their teams and in their entire field. This feeling may create a need to compare yourself to other people, which can be psychologically exhausting and impede progress. People with impostor syndrome will do things like dismiss their accomplishments or contributions, feeling like it’s just a matter of time before they are “found out” for doing something wrong. Taking control of your impostor syndrome requires tackling self-doubt. Ask yourself to define the problem, identify the worst-case scenario, and evaluate whether that scenario has a chance of happening. In most cases, it’s just an emotional response that creates a feeling of possibility where there is none.
To really get rid of the safety net, stop making excuses. Excuses are the enemies of your goals. If you find yourself stating excuses for why you didn’t do something or why the results were subpar, stop and use it as an opportunity for evaluation. Instead of resorting to excuses, simply ask yourself how you would do things differently next time.
Get into Wait Training
As a culture, people are obsessed with overnight success stories that show someone beating the odds or redefining an industry as an outsider. Such people are hailed for breaking down barriers and breaking down doors. But while it makes great stories, instant success is the outlier, not the norm, and it definitely isn’t a reliable game plan.
Achievement is all about playing the long game and delaying gratification. Learning to resist giving into temptation is important: Your priorities need to change to find success, and you need to stick to them for as long as it takes. You must also balance impulse and reason and learn not to go after what feels good during that exact moment.
In the 1990s, lawyer Mike Lewis took on Big Tobacco. Despite overwhelming evidence dating back to the 1960s that tobacco was linked to lung cancer, cigarette manufacturers refused to take responsibility. Devastated by a friend’s death from lung cancer, Lewis did something a little radical: He decided to sue companies for taxpayer money spent on treating smoking-related illnesses in his home state of Mississippi. Lewis and his colleagues filed their suit in May 1994 and held a press conference to make a statement to the tobacco industry: “You caused the health crisis, so you pay for it.” Lewis was immediately ridiculed by the state governor, and both state and federal government offices told him he didn’t have a case to fight. It took years, and Lewis’s colleagues dedicated their lives to the case without the guarantee of reward — but in the end, they won. After four years, they reached a settlement and Big Tobacco companies had to pay out billions of dollars in a legendary victory.
Not every win will be on the same level as taking down Big Tobacco, but that doesn’t make them any less of a win. In addition to celebrating the big wins, learning to celebrate the small victories along your journey helps you develop the endurance you need to reach those big goals. Admire your progress as you go to encourage you to keep working toward something bigger. It’s also important to focus on practicing discipline in small ways If you need a place to get started, begin with a classic: Make your bed every morning. This simple task functionally changes your mindset because your first completed task of the day that creates a sense of accomplishment and encourages you to keep checking things off your to do list all day.
Bend Like Bamboo
Things are not always what they seem. The bamboo plant is a prime example of this: Even though the outside of the plant is very hard, the hollow interior makes bamboo incredibly flexible. It can wave gently during an afternoon breeze as well as withstand tropical storms that cause damage all around it. Its adaptability makes bamboo the perfect example of grit.
Some planning will help you plot your path to success, but you need to be adaptable because nothing goes exactly as planned. To be adaptable, you must learn not to be discouraged by change. This makes optimism is a key component of adaptability. Optimism helps navigate setbacks because it allows you to see them as temporary and changeable. Knowing how to challenge your own perspective will keep you moving, even while facing difficulties. If you find yourself becoming discouraged by one or more changes, stop before your thought process starts to spiral: What can you do to change what is currently happening, and how do you plan to do that?
Adaptability is determined by your mindset. Carol Dweck, a psychologist at Stanford University, splits mindsets into two groups: fixed and growth.
- A person with a fixed mindset believes traits are determined by genetics and usually thinks they can’t do anything about difficulties when they arise.
- A person with a growth mindset believes traits and abilities can be expanded with dedication and work and is not discouraged by obstacles.
When you become aware of which mindset you are in, you develop more skills to pivot and change instead of having your current mindset determine your destiny.
No Expiration Date
As people get older, they assume that their abilities naturally weaken, including their ability to change and learn. Phrases like “old dogs can’t learn new tricks” encourage this perspective. But grit is not determined by age. Your brain operates like a muscle from the time you were born, and without exercise and practice, it grows weak. But there are always opportunities to grow your grit, no matter your age.
This obsession with age and building success while you’re young is changing how people view their careers. Work culture is obsessed with young success. People in their twenties assume they’ll never be successful because they aren’t moving up in their career quickly enough, despite not even being 25% into their entire career. There’s a glamor attributed to retiring early or following the example of someone you admire on a “30 under 30” list. But there are many examples of people who found new, successful careers at an older age, including comedian Ken Jeong, a medical doctor who decided to seriously pursue acting in his late thirties.
Ageism limits potential. On a neurological level, you are not born with all your gray cells: You are capable of growing billions and billions more as you age, as long as you stimulate your brain throughout your life. Newton’s first law of physics states that a body in motion will stay in motion at the same speed until intercepted by an outside force. Keep this in mind instead of stopping and starting when it comes to developing new skills or working toward your goals.
Grit for Good
Work doesn’t feel like work if it’s something you enjoy, especially when it benefits your community. Being able to see tangible, positive impact is an important part of finding what motivates you.
Further, working to help others has outstanding effects on your mental and physical health. Adults over the age of 50 who volunteered a couple hundred hours per year are 40% less likely to develop hypertension than their peers who don’t volunteer. Practicing acts of kindness and going out of your way to help people benefits your well-being, which helps you keep going when you feel like you don’t have the motivation you need.
As the keeper of potential, grit makes a significant contribution to whether people are motivated to go out of their way to help others.
Summary
Among gritty people, the satisfaction of hard work is universal. Grit enables people to see the value in their effort rather than just look for the quickest way to get the job done. As a recently coined term for the combination of passion and drive, grit is becoming increasingly more important for measuring a person’s potential. From changing perspectives on academic success to changing how people get hired, grit is the key to ending up where you want to be.
Here’s how you can grow your grit:
- Stop fantasizing or idealizing the product of success; instead, focus on creating visions of what it will take for you to start succeeding. Dream about the steps you need to take, not the finish line.
- Don’t just embrace failure as an idea; put yourself in situations where you’re destined to fail on a small scale, so you get comfortable with it. Also, get accustomed to thinking on your feet while embarrassed or flustered.
- Challenge your perspective by embracing a growth mindset and believing that you’re in control of your path.
- Celebrate your small victories.
- Don’t think of age as a limitation or a hurdle. You can grow your grit at any age.
Linda Kaplan is an acclaimed author, speaker, and advertising leader. Kaplan was behind several advertising campaigns that are iconic parts of American pop culture, including “Kodak moments” and the Aflac duck. She was the first woman to win the Clio’s Lifetime Achievement Award and was inducted into the American Advertising Federation’s Hall of Fame in 2015. She co-authored The Power of Nice and The Power of Small with Robin Koval.
Robin Koval is a bestselling author, renowned public speaker, and marketing strategist known for leading campaigns that generate social awareness of advocacy efforts. In addition to writing and speaking, Koval works in youth tobacco prevention as president and CEO of Truth Initiative. She holds a bachelor of fine arts degree from Syracuse University and an MBA from Baruch College.