Part One:
I’m roughly 20% into Angela Duckworth’s “Grit” and I suspect that it might be yet another book that dramatically improves my life. Her talk about “Grit” so far revolves around 2 traits, passion and persistence. Of the two, persistence seems to be the more powerful, as she believes it most strongly predicts long-term success. In other words, a person with persistence alone can accomplish much more than one who has passion, but minimal “stick-to-it-ness.” This is kind of a wake up call for me, since I have focused so much on finding work that I love, but not on growing my love of that work. I’ve done it backwards.
I think there are two things that offer some redemption to us “primarily passionate people.” One, she discusses that a person’s grit score tends to improve with age. Even passionate people tire of flitting from one thing to the next, and decide to settle down eventually. Initially, these people crave novelty, and the allure of each new thing displaces their growing boredom with the old. As such people get mature though, she says, they tire of always being a beginner, and crave a deeper level of engagement with one thing.
What I found especially encouraging is that many people who hop from one career to the next in their twenties often become very successful in their thirties having found the right thing to pour their focus into. They find something that can grow into a passion.
I believe I might be on the cusp of wanting to specialize. Even as I try new things, I get drawn back to writing and finance. Nothing new matches my desire to better understand these subjects and become an expert in them. Arguably, I am still spread too thin, with two goals rather than one. Writing will likely be more of a hobby that complements my love of investing and financial planning. Duckworth’s main point, here, is that it takes a tremendous amount of work to reach a goal, and therefore, the goal should be meaningful so as to make the work worthwhile.
The other message from Duckworth that I take solace in is that passion is important (even if it’s not quite as important as persistence). Greatness cannot be achieved with effort alone; even the most persistent will run out of juice if they don’t have something worth working for. The great minds of past generations didn’t make their contributions solely by working hard, but by having a deep love of what they do.
In fact, either passion or persistence can lead to the other in a self-fulfilling cycle. Most obviously, passion drives a desire for hard work and improvement. But more subtle is the idea that persistence can lead to greater appreciation of you craft. As you gain expertise, you notice more of the nuances that make it beautiful and worthy of your attention. Think of it like acquiring a better understanding of wine. A novice could tell you “this is a red, this is a white,” but not much more than that. But with time, they’ll learn to identify different types of wine, “This is a Pinot Noir, that one is a Shiraz.” And eventually, they’ll begin saying things that might sound like nonsense to the rest of us, “this is a full-bodied and aromatic Pinot…this Shiraz has notes of cherry.” But they really can tell the difference and enjoy it that much more as a result. They probably didn’t start out with a passion for wine. Rather, it grew over many years and tastings. With each bottle their knowledge grew, and so did their appreciation of it. (By the way, if you want to learn more about wine, check out my podcast with Jared Rallison).
Part Two:
The other thing Duckworth notes (and at this point my website has temporarily become a home for my reading notes on her book, Grit), is that a sense of purpose leads people to better work that they enjoy more. One does not necessarily need passion to get here, but can actually develop passion as a matter of choice. Even the lowest, most bureaucratically isolated employee, she argues, can find ways to link their work to a larger, more meaningful outcome, and thereby derive a sense of purpose from seemingly menial work.
No one needs to wait for the perfect job, or an inspiring leader. What we need to do is reframe our perspective. I have been historically terrible at this. In most of the organizations I’ve worked in, I’ve pictured myself in the CEO’s position imagining ways of making the company more efficient. Often, I’ve pretend-fired myself as a way of evaluating whether I was really essential to the organization (frequently with a discouraging conclusion).
But that’s the wrong attitude to have. In each case, I could have made it my holy mission to make operations run faster and smoother, even going so far as to automate much of my own job to free my time to help others do the same. From the bottom upwards, I could have led major improvements, rather than skulk at my perceived lack of influence. Often, management teams want to streamline the organization and boost the productivity of their workers, but struggle to get results for various reasons. I could therefore have strived to make an impact on par with the level of a skilled executive, despite being the youngest, newest employee in each case. Robert Coram’s biography of John Boyd teaches a similar lesson. The takeaway for Duckworth’s book, though, is that this kind of proactive engagement, and reframing leads to much higher job satisfaction than many people would otherwise have. This in turn leads to greater grit.
Update Three:
I’ve finished the book, and would definitely recommend it to just about anyone, especially people in their 20s thinking about what they’d like to spend their life working on. The last part of the book talked about how to cultivate grit, especially among children. This was interesting, probably moreso if you’re a parent, but nothing revelatory in the last third of the book. I found it really interesting overall, though, and can see why it’s gotten so much praise. I think we can all benefit from being a little grittier.