Angela Duckworth, Author of “Grit”
Today, my guest is Angela Duckworth, author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, a #1 New York Times best seller and TED Speaker (which is among the most-viewed of all time). She is also the Founder and CEO of Character Lab, a nonprofit whose mission is to advance the science and practice of character development.
She is also the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, faculty co-director of the Penn-Wharton Behavior Change For Good Initiative, and faculty co-director of Wharton People Analytics.
A 2013 MacArthur Fellow, Angela was a McKinsey management consultant and a math and science teacher in the public schools of New York City, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. Angela has a BS from Harvard (magna cum laude), an MSc (with distinction) from Oxford and a PhD in Psychology as a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania.
In this candid conversation, Angela shared the real stories behind her groundbreaking research on grit, her transition from teaching to psychology, and her mission to help children thrive.
1. Beyond Just Hard Work. Angela revealed that her interest in achievement deepened while working as a teacher, where she noticed that natural talent did not guarantee a student's success. Instead, she found that achievement came down to the quantity and quality of effort, defining "grit" as a unique combination of voluntary obsession (passion) and the resilience to get back up after a failure.
2. The John Wayne Inspiration. When trying to officially name this unique blend of stamina and passion, Angela credits her doctoral advisor, the renowned psychologist Marty Seligman. After she presented a list of words like stamina, pluck, and persistence, Seligman approved of the word "grit"—a term inspired by the classic John Wayne western, True Grit.
3. Reverse Engineering Success. Addressing whether grit is innate, Angela emphasized that almost every feature of human nature is malleable and learnable. She advises that anyone wanting to become grittier should start by "reverse engineering" the habits of successful people they admire, asking how and why they do things in order to copy their behaviors and build their own discipline.
4. Translating Science into Action. Rather than focusing on writing another book, Angela is dedicating her time to scientific discovery and her nonprofit, Character Lab. Through this organization, she translates complex psychological research into actionable advice for parents and teachers, driven by a profound, lifelong mission to use science to help kids thrive
