The Nitty Gritty of Grit
Hi all,
Hope you had a terrific long weekend that actually felt like a break! Happy Independence Day, and Happy Canada Day (… “co-dependence day”? 🤨)
This week’s newsletter piggybacks off last week’s newsletter on working all the time, and digs into the concept of ‘grit’. It’s one of those buzzy words that’s been used a lot in business jargon, and (fitness Instagrams. To be honest, when I first think of grit, I think of this:)
Angela Duckworth, a psychologist and academic published a book in 2016 on the concept, defining it much more broadly.
“Grit is a psychological, non-cognitive trait that combines passion with perseverance.:
Her work in the field shows that grit (more than IQ or EQ), is the key to predicting success. In the book, she finds while talent matters, grit, or the consistency of effort over time matters much more in determining success. But there’s a lot of nuance in putting in effort, that gets misconstrued (see: pain and suffering above), which I want to dig into below through my own experiences, and through a conversation with someone in my network that often has disagreements about the meaning of grit with her very different (but complementary) cofounder.
Musings
A fundamental component of the definition of grit is perseverance, or the ability to stick with something for a long period of time, despite challenges and setbacks. I’m sensitive to this concept, because in my own career, I’ve often worried that my resume (with all its twists and turns) may come across as being unfocused. I worry that changing careers multiple times could be interpreted by some as the lack of perseverance… or giving up easily.
I’m typically an overthinker on how things could be perceived (and certainly companies are changing their expectation of how long employees stick around), so maybe this isn’t an entirely founded fear.
But whenever I’ve considered a job or career switch, I’ve always had the initial internal question of “Am I just not gritty enough? Can I just not hack it to be successful and happy in this current role?” I suspect I’m not alone in this self-doubt.
Given that context, it was incredibly heartening to hear one of Duckworth’s clarifications on grit, in her interview in a podcast with Steve Levitt on the Freakonomics podcast. In it, she discusses how grit is often misconstrued as the relentless pursuit of every goal, (or as Levitt puts it “every goal, no matter how difficult a problem, nor how useless it is.”)
She talks about a hierarchy of goals - i.e.
Tactical goals - the day to day functions you perform
Interim goals - the medium term projects or milestones that inform your day to day functions
Overarching long term “master” goals - a mission statement or “north star”
She elaborates,
“Human beings not only have a spectrum of goals from the specific to the abstract, but they’re arranged hierarchically where the more abstract goals, the long-term goals, are more identity-relevant. They’re more important to us as people.”
In her own example, she describes how her overarching goal is very lofty, and very abstract: “Use psychological science to help kids thrive”, which trickles down to her interim goals of writing and publishing research on grit, and further down into the day to day tactics of scheduling time to read and write.
Another (non-professional) example: say your overarching abstract master goal is to “have a ton of energy and fitness to make the most time with your kids”, which trickles down to an interim goal of running a half marathon, and further down into tactical goals of running 3-4 times a week.
Duckworth emphasizes that changing your tactical goals, or even your intermediary goals actually isn’t an indication of wavering grit. In fact, having the agility to change your tactics (that match your passion and circumstances), in order to keep striving towards your master goal - the one that define your identity and purpose - is her intended meaning of perseverance. In the fitness example, if you discover you hate running (very possible), or if you end up injured (equally as possible), you may abandon your weekly tactical goals, in pursuit of an alternate sport or activity. Yet your master goal of increasing your energy has remained identical.
Giving up your lower level goals, and employing flexibility to find different ways to manifest your overarching goal is nothing to be ashamed of, and actually is probably necessary over time.
Other psychologists warn of “stupid grit”, where relentlessly driving forward leads to negative outcomes - athletes who push through injuries to ill long term effect, or corporations fail because they’re too rigid to innovate. Both of these things could negatively be interpreted as “giving up”, but in reality, expending the effort and exercising the flexibility to reevaluate a different course toward a master goal is actually
In a future newsletter, I want to explore how we construct our high level master goals, or our “north star”. I think it can morph over time but for now, I think my personal one looks something like this:
Master goal: Empowering people and businesses to do good, using conversation and empathy
Interim goals: Professionally - connecting investors with companies that have positive impact; Personally - helping others explore career satisfaction
Tactical goals: Professionally - raising a new fund to invest in even more companies, Personally - writing this newsletter every week, being a resource and confidant to friends, colleagues and others in my network.
My interim goals have certainly changed over time (the specific job or companies I’ve been at), and of course, obviously, so have my tactical goals, but in some way, shape or form, they’ve all been aligned with a broader master goal.
So even if you feel like you’ve switched careers or roles a few times, it’s possible that your giving up on one path to explore another, is completely in line with your master goal, and in doing so, you are building resilience.
I’d love to hear more from you. What have been your overarching goals, and from what different paths have you pursued these goals?
Conversations
This week’s conversation was with a good friend who often engages in a philosophical debate about ‘grit’ with her very type A co-founder. They often challenge each other on their respective frameworks, yet end up having a complementary partnership, and I find their beliefs on the concept interesting to dig into.
His philosophy on grit, is that it is:
Akin to suffering through hard things: working hard and feeling high stress and pressure are motivating factors and likely to lead to success
An immutable personality trait: people are either gritty, or not gritty
An overarching way of life: one should be gritty at everything: work, life, hobbies, sports, interests
He is successful in his own right and style. I’ve worked with many high performing people in finance that subscribe to this interpretation as well.
She believes - according to Duckworth’s research, correctly - that grit is actually:
Driven by enjoyment, not suffering: A core tenet of grit is passion or intrinsically enjoying what you do
Only somewhat of a personality trait: Yes, someone can be gritty, but it does not exist in a vacuum - grit is relational - it’s a way of relating to a certain concept, project or task, not a standalone trait of who someone is. Also, grit can grow over time
Only possible in certain areas of one’s life: It’s very hard to be gritty at everything - in fact, if you are very gritty about one thing , it’s hard to be gritty at other things, because you simply have finite time, energy and resources
In short-term spurts, his philosophy on grit might be the most black and white, easy to understand and therefore, the most motivating framework. But grit is a long-term concept applied broadly that incorporates a lot more nuance.
His belief of what grit is, is likely more akin to the concept of “self-control”.
In the abstract of a 2014 academic paper, Duckworth bridges these two concepts as follows:
“Self-control and grit are strongly correlated, but not perfectly so.
Self-control entails aligning actions with any valued goal despite momentarily more-alluring alternatives; grit, in contrast, entails having and working assiduously toward a single challenging superordinate goal through thick and thin, on a timescale of years or even decades.”
In short, you can give up some self-control (i.e. be flexible in your approach or give in to some short term distractions or temptations if it increases or renews your enjoyment or passion in the goal), and still be extremely gritty, if you are working consistently towards your overarching master goal over time (whatever that may be).
Would love to hear from you on this topic too, which 'definition’ of grit resonates more with you?
Resources/Links
Grit FAQ: Duckworth summarizes and dispels a lot of the misconceptions of grit on her website in a quick resource guide here (Angela Duckworth)
Adam Grant, a top rated professor at Wharton who has an incredible wealth of knowledge on organizational psychology, gave a commencement speech in 2017, with this headline, “Never give up is bad advice. Sometimes quitting is a virtue.” (cnbc.com)
Cool ladies doing cool things: Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate is advocating for expanding access to schooling for girls in low-income countries, which can indirectly have a massive positive impact on reducing emissions. Educated women are more likely to have access to contraception and the ability to limit unwanted pregnancies, and increased education will lead to more female decision makers at the table to enact climate policy (grist.org)