Grit by Angela Duckworth: Why your talent doesn’t matter

 In any success story, it’s generally considered that talent and intellect are the main drivers of success. However, in this book, Angela Duckworth presents a factor of success that is completely ignored. 

“Grit” by Angela Duckworth revolves around the idea that your talent and achievements do not completely determine where you’ll be in life later on. In fact, this is the case for most conventionally successful people. 

Since it hit the bookshelves in 2016, selling over 6 million copies, the idea of “Grit” has captured the minds of many, even having a large scale impact on educational policy in the west. 

So, let’s go through the pages of “Grit” by Angela Duckworth, why it’s so famous, and if it’s worth being a part of your reading list. We’ll go through all this and more- with of course, NO SPOILERS. 

Spoiler-Free Summary

“Grit”, in simple words, is the idea that your hard work and perseverance matter exponentially more than your talent in the long run.

The book explains that combination of passion and perseverance over long periods of time matters more than raw talent. According to Duckworth, highly successful people are not always the smartest or most gifted. Instead, they continue working toward goals even when progress is slow, boring, or difficult.

The book challenges the popular belief that talent alone guarantees achievement. Duckworth explains that effort is just as important because talent without discipline often goes unused. Someone moderately talented but extremely determined may outperform someone naturally brilliant who gives up easily.

A major idea in the book is that grit is built through consistency. People with grit stay committed to a goal for years rather than constantly changing direction. They learn from failure instead of seeing failure as proof that they are incapable. This mindset allows them to improve gradually over time.

Take a look at this diagram from the book. It’s quite possible that you’ve already seen it somewhere online as well. 

The first one represents the conventional belief that talent itself leads to achievement. Whereas the second one shows that talent needs effort to develop skill, and skill needs more effort to actually bring in the results.

Duckworth also discusses how grit can be developed. Supportive environments, disciplined habits, meaningful goals, and a growth mindset all help people become more resilient. She emphasises that struggle is not the opposite of success, but rather it is often part of the process.

So, is this book for you?

“Grit” is known for its lucid explanation of psychological concepts, and its fascinating documentation of the author’s original research (which I rather enjoyed as well).  

However, there are a couple of things to know about the book before you decide to read it.

Doesn’t consider social situations or interpersonal skills

Divided into three parts, the third part attempts to deal with the positive social environments that help manifest persistence or “Grit” in a person, however there’s a bit of a problem.

“Grit” mostly assumes the situations where everyone is on an equal playing field. However, the book fails to consider very common situations where one sees structural dysfunction in a society or family or even nations, and inequalities, especially in situations where the only way out of an abusive or harmful atmosphere is not just “grit”, but sometimes innate talent or even luck. 

“Grit”, or passion and perseverance in simple words, isn’t clearly the only thing- or the most important thing for success. The contexts taken in the book mostly rely on forms of achievement that rely on individual-centred achievement. It completely fails to illuminate even slightly, the importance of social connections and forming interpersonal skills in the process. 

Common sense shown as wisdom

“Grit” has been marketed as something novel and never-seen-before. However, at its very core “Grit” is just a blend of discipline, resilience and conscientiousness. 

And that’s the main problem with this book. The concept of  “Grit” is actually good old determination, passion and willpower, which is honestly just common sense. 

Looking away from this, however, perhaps part of the book’s very purpose is showing that sometimes educational institutions and companies- while searching for innate talent and ‘naturals’ forget to assess values of hard work and genuine commitment.

Conclusion

“Grit” was, at least from my perspective, not something as groundbreaking or revolutionary as it claims to be. But on the other hand, it still re-iterates the idea that hard work and dedication can surpass talent, in a world where the latter is favored ideologically but talent is favored in practice. 

As a reader, I can give this book a rating of

6/10