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  • Published: 15 May 2016
  • ISBN: 9781785040184
  • Imprint: Vermilion
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $45.00

Grit

The Power of Passion and Perseverance




Why resilience and single-mindedness are the keys to outstanding achievement and how they can help you to accomplish remarkable things

Why do naturally talented people frequently fail to reach their potential while other far less gifted individuals go on to achieve amazing things? The secret to outstanding achievement is not talent, but a passionate persistence. In other words, grit.

MacArthur Genius Award-winning psychologist Angela Duckworth shares fascinating new revelations about who succeeds in life and why. Based on her cutting-edge research, Duckworth shows how many people achieve remarkable things not just by relying on innate natural talent, but by practising what she calls grit. She then offers a Grit Formula to help anyone to become more gritty, focusing on six key factors: hope, effort, precision, passion, ritual and prioritisation. She reveals:

- Why people who test high for talent often fail to achieve their potential, and why people who do not test high for talent often "overachieve" what others expect them to do
- How grit can be learned, whatever your IQ or circumstances
- Why stubbornness is a key characteristic of gritty people
- When to be stubborn and when giving up is the grittiest thing you can do
- How gritty people found their passion, and you can find yours
- How gritty experts practise, and how you can do the same in your own life
- What the people who care about you can do to boost your grit when you need it most
- How grit is cultivated in the highest-performing sports teams, companies and schools

Leaping past clichés such as 'success is all about hard work', Grit offers a fresh and motivating way to climb to heights far beyond what natural talent would predict.

  • Published: 15 May 2016
  • ISBN: 9781785040184
  • Imprint: Vermilion
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $45.00

About the author

Angela Duckworth

Dr Angela Duckworth is a 2013 MacArthur Fellow and an associate professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. She is an expert in non-IQ competencies, including grit and self-control. A highly sought-after international speaker, her TED talk on grit has been viewed by over 10 million people.

Duckworth’s hypothesis that the real guarantor of success may not be inborn talent but a special blend of resilience and single-mindedness grew out of her upbringing: as a child her scientist father lovingly bemoaned the fact his daughter was ‘no genius’. Duckworth was determined to prove him wrong and spent her youth smashing through every academic barrier. As an adult she became focused on proving her theory and to find out if grit can be learned or cultivated. It was out of this that she created her own Character Lab at the University of Pennsylvania.

Praise for Grit

Impressively fresh and original … GRIT scrubs away preconceptions about how far our potential can take us. And it solves the riddle of how those not likely to succeed in fact do. Buy this, send copies to your friends, and tell the world that there is, in fact, hope. We can all dazzle.

Susan Cain, New York Times bestselling author

I kept wanting to read this book aloud - to my child, my husband, to everyone I care about. There are no shortcuts to greatness, it's true. But there is a roadmap, and you are holding it.

Amanda Ripley, New York Times bestselling author

GRIT is a persuasive and fascinating response to the cult of IQ fundamentalism. Duckworth reminds us that it is character and perseverance that set the successful apart.

Malcolm Gladwell

Utterly captivating, inspiring and original.For those of us who are not blessed with the easy confidence that comes from being a 'natural', Duckworth offers the science showing how staying committed to a task will eventually persuade others we were born to it. Once you pick up GRIT, you won't be able to tear yourself away.

Amy Cuddy, Harvard Business School professor and author of PRESENCE

Angela Duckworth has written a contemporary classic - a clarifying and deeply-researched book in the tradition of Stephen Covey and Carol Dweck. For anyone hoping to work smarter or live better, GRIT is an essential - and perhaps life-changing - read.

Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and To Sell is Human

At a time when our collective notion of success has shrunk to the point of being unrecognizable, Angela Duckworth arrives to restore it. With a mix of masterful storytelling and the latest science, she shows that perseverance and passion matter at least as much as talent and intelligence. And far from simply urging us to work harder for the sake of working harder, Grit offers a truly sane perspective: that true success comes when we devote ourselves to endeavors that give us joy and purpose.

Arianna Huffington, bestselling author of Thrive

This book will change your life. Fascinating, rigorous, and practical, Grit is destined to be a classic in the literature of success.

Dan Heath, bestselling co-author of Made to Stick, Switch and Decisive