A UPenn social psychologist discovers the hidden factor that drives accomplishment and correlates strongly to satisfaction with life. This book explains what grit is and how we can develop it in ourselves and in others.

Getting into West Point is no small feat. The applicants are every bit as smart as Harvard’s, but the process of enrollment begins in eleventh grade, and it involves meeting rigorous fitness requirements and getting a letter of recommendation from a state senator. West Point usually gets about 14,000 applications a year and eventually turns away all but 1,200. Of those admitted, one-fifth do not make it to graduation.

Among those who drop out, many don’t even make it through the summer to start fall classes. Why would people who have spent two years getting excellent grades and maintaining high class standing, stellar ACT and SAT scores, remarkable fitness, and even procuring approval of a high-ranking government official, quit within a few weeks?

Many people get hung up on brutal summer training sessions and decide they can’t do it anymore. Interestingly enough, West Point does not have a strong predictive tool to anticipate which selected cadets will end up pushing through “the Beast Barracks,” and who will drop out. The college’s meticulously crafted “Whole Candidate Score,” the chief determinant of admission at West Point, was unreliable.

Many a psychologist had come through West Point attempting to crack the code of success and failure. Was it ACT scores, class rank, or even athletic skill that made the difference? Turns out it was determination and direction. These two qualities—a refusal to give up and a profound certainty of what you’re after—are the formula for grit. Grit applies not just to West Point cadets but to the successful in domains as diverse as rocket science, music, and athletics.

The X Factor. Child Genius? America’s Got Talent. Shows like these are illustrative of a culture obsessed with talent. So do the special set-apart courses for “gifted” students. The author herself confesses to getting caught up in obsessions over genius. It’s in the air we breathe.

That people are readily taken in by talent and genius is not a modern phenomenon either. The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote that,

“Our vanity, our self-love, promotes the cult of genius….For if we think of genius as something magical, we are not obliged to compare ourselves and find ourselves lacking….To call someone ‘divine’ means: ‘here there is no need to compete.”

Greatness is not built in a day, nor is it doled out to those with “the knack.” Remarkable accomplishments come when people think and act in a particular direction for a long time. Just about anyone is capable of doing something great—perhaps it is precisely this that people fear, and the reason many put the talented in a separate category, as Nietzsche asserted.

The truth is, however, that talent can be a barrier to success more than an aid. Some of those who are told they are “gifted” or “geniuses” or “prodigies” throughout childhood may internalize a sense of entitlement and may not put forth as much effort.

Remember Enron? Forbes dubbed the company “America’s Most Innovative Company” six years in a row before their fraudulence came to light. Enron prided itself on the talent they managed to recruit. It wasn’t because of high average IQ or even lack of grit, but it’s possible that an unintended consequence of prizing intelligence created a culture of narcissism. This could have, in turn, encouraged people to posture and maintain appearances of intelligence rather than acting with integrity. Enron’s ruthless “rank-and-yank” system that purged the company of relatively low performers might have fostered smugness and deception among employees, prizing short-term gains over long-term growth.

When talent gets the limelight, we need to ask what gets left in the shadows. Grit is the most significant and neglected factor.

How gritty do you consider yourself? Here are a few statements taken from the Grit Scale that will help give you a sense of your grit level. Compare yourself to “most people” rather than to family members or coworkers.

I have a good work ethic.

I complete whatever I start.

I’m not discouraged in the face of setbacks.

New ideas and goals often replace my old ones.

I’ve often become obsessed with a project and then lose interest.

I am diligent.

I have persevered in the face of obstacles to overcome a significant challenge.

Remember that grit is the measure of passion and perseverance. The questions on the Grit Scale do not directly ask subjects to rate their level of passion because passion is better measured in consistency than intensity. If you talk to high achievers in various disciplines and professions, you find that the common thread is not intense emotion but deep commitment over extended periods of time.

Deep commitment is impossible without a sense of priority. Seahawks coach Pete Carroll recommends forming a goal hierarchy, with the overarching goal at the top, branching down to smaller projects that contribute to the achievement of that overarching goal. You can readily divide goals into top-, mid-, and low-levels. The goals at the bottom are going to be the most practical, least abstract, and readily actionable.

Warren Buffett made a similar suggestion to his pilot when his pilot confided that he had higher aspirations than flying Warren Buffett around the world the rest of his life. Buffett gave him three steps to follow: 1) make a list of 25 career goals, 2) after some reflection, circle the five you consider most important, 3) ruthlessly avoid the 20 items you did not circle so they do not take your time and focus from the top five.

Catherine Cox of Stanford University conducted a study of eminent geniuses throughout the past several centuries. Among the those geniuses on her list were Edmund Burke, John Milton, George Washington, and Voltaire. The least eminent were geniuses in their own rite though not as well known, like Robert Bunsen, whose discoveries later enabled the creation of the Bunsen burner. What Cox found through her study was that the only thing separating those people from the average Joes was not innate ability but tremendous effort and dedication.

If you feel you don’t have much passion or perseverance, there’s hope! Grit, like any other character quality, can be strengthened.

So grit is comprised of passion and perseverance and tends to increase life satisfaction. Great, but how accessible is this to someone whose interests are varied or even unknown, or to the person whose sense of purpose is hazy and has yet to test or refine goals through consistent, concerted effort?

Grit can grow through the discovery and pursuit of interests. It requires some soul-searching. What makes you come alive? What gets your blood boiling? What do you find yourself reflexively thinking about? How do you spend your free time? If you’re not sure what your interests are, it’s time to experiment. You’ll learn so much more about yourself through experimenting than just sitting and fretting. Start with what you’re most sure of and build out from there. Don’t let your fear of not finding the “best” keep you from pursuing something you consider to be “good.”

As you discover an area of interest, pursue it. Practice it. As mentioned earlier, it is usually the people who consistently perform tasks that build toward a goal that succeed rather than the ones who are considered prodigies or geniuses or just plain talented. Research reveals that the National Spelling Bee winners practiced more than the contestants they edged out. Another article entitled “The Mundanity of Excellence” argues that the feats that floor us are often the coalescence of a variety of fairly regular activities.

The Japanese word kaizen gets us closer to the kind of practice we should go for. Kaizen can be translated as “continuous improvement.” The concept gained currency in the United States when American businessmen saw the dogged perseverance and desire for excellence among the Japanese. Kaizen is not easy, but it’s rewarding. Coasting is easy, but not as rewarding. Some people get twenty years of experience while other people get one year’s worth of experience twenty times in a row. The most successful people in any field are those who refuse the allure of complacency.

What often happens is that interests mature into purpose. Purpose necessarily involves the good of others. When interest and purpose meet, they become a passion. The people who exemplify grittiness have always done this, whether they realize it or not. When gritty people are asked to articulate their sense of purpose, many a grit guru will fumble around earnestly for the words, but when they do gather their thoughts, the purpose they express always has something to do with seeking the good of other people.

Finally, hope is also a critical ingredient in building inside-out grit. As the ancient Japanese adage goes: “Fall seven, rise eight.”

Grit can be built from the inside-out by discovering our interests, practicing those interests, connecting those interests to a more meaningful purpose, and hanging on to hope no matter what. But grit can be built from the outside-in as well.

Some questions for growing grit from the outside in would be: Who are you surrounding yourself with? Are your friends and co-workers lazy and unmotivated? Do you have people who can push you? Find coaches and mentors who will hold you accountable and galvanize you in your cultivation of interests, discovery of purpose, and consistency of practice.

For parents and teachers, there are ways to build structures that grow grit in children and young adults. But even if you’re not a parent, you can act in a way that’s parent-like to those who are younger. After all, the word “parenting” comes from the Latin word meaning “to bring forth.” So what are the ways in which we can “parent” or bring forth grit in others?

There’s plenty of research on parenting and some on grit, but there is not yet any research on which parenting practices best foster grit. There are numerous case studies of children who were raised in radically different ways, but emerged with similar qualities of perseverance, self-assuredness, and drive—in short: grit.

Parenting styles can differ and still fall under the category of what can be called “wise parenting,” or parenting that is both supportive and demanding. Neglectful parenting is the opposite: both undemanding and unsupportive. Permissive parenting is supportive, but undemanding. Authoritarian parenting is demanding but not supportive. Neglectful, authoritarian, and permissive parenting are all less than ideal. Wise parenting is child-centered, warm and lovingly supportive while also giving the child responsibilities and holding them accountable to their capabilities.

Extracurricular activity is an excellent way to reinforce grit in a child’s life. Activities like sports or ballet create an environment that is both supportive and demanding of excellence. School is hard, but usually not very interesting to children. Social media is interesting, but not challenging. Ballet and competitive sports offer both. When kids do hard things that interest them—especially over an extended period of time, they are far more likely to attend and graduate college, to be involved in their communities, and are more employable and earn higher pay.

A number of questions remain about grit and will need to be investigated further.

Is there a dark side to grit? Is there such a thing as too much grit? The research so far, however, indicates that there is no danger of too much grit.

Aristotle wrote about the importance of moderation, that there was a balance to be struck, a “golden mean” between vices at either extreme. Bravery is the golden mean between cowardice and cockiness. Modern psychology seems to corroborate this. Psychologists Adam Grant and Barry Schwartz have found an inverted U-shape to personality traits. In other words, there is a region of maximal benefit for just about any personality trait, like introversion or openness or agreeableness. This area of benefit tends to taper off dramatically at either extreme.

So far, grit appears to be an exception to this general principle. Studies of perseverance have show that there is a strong positive correlation between grit and happiness. In other words, the more grit people report having, the greater their overall satisfaction with life tends to be. This is important to bear in mind, because many people, consciously or unconsciously, equate happiness with success. There’s a relation between them, but they’re not the same thing, nor is it a one-for-one. But if happiness is what we’re after, building grit both from the outside-in and the inside-out is our best bet.