Grit

Angela Duckworth is a paragon of success by any measure. A MacArthur Genius and University of Pennsylvania professor of psychology, she founded an award-winning summer school for low-income children. She created and serves as scientific director of The Character Lab, and has advised the World Bank and NBA and NFL teams. She holds a Harvard BA in neurology, an Oxford degree in neuroscience and a University of Pennsylvania PhD in psychology. In her best-selling, acclaimed first book, she explores what it means to have “grit.” 

An Ingenious Niche

Duckworth ranges wide for her illustrative examples, from crossword puzzles in The New York Times to the relationships between talent and effort and between skill and effort. Her consultations for NBA and NFL teams prove handy as she uses, for example, the Seattle Seahawks and their coach, Pete Carroll, as examples of institutionalized grit.