TED Talks: Angela Lee Duckworth Explains Grit

In the video "The key to success? Grit", Angela Lee Duckworth tells us about how she found out what was the key point in being successful in life. She started off as a teacher, teaching seventh grade mathematics in the New York city public school. After all the term work, she then calculated grades from her students. The results were shocking. Her smartest students weren't doing so well; on the other hand, the hardworking students didn't have the best grades. This means that IQ wasn't the only difference between her best and her worst students. I don't think there are any students that would be named "worst student", they're just not as successful like the others but are working at getting better. In a motivational perspective and a psychological one, Angela believes that grit is the predictor to success in all things. If you work hard and long enough, you will succeed! Angela left and became a psychologist to further investigate her idea of what makes someone successful. From here Angela worked with a team of other psychologists. She worked and experimented with people ranging from children to adults; putting them in all difficult settings and see who would succeed and prevail. Angela always asking herself while conducting the experiment, "who is successful here and why"? In the end, Angela and her team found out a characteristic that stood out the most. Every test they did, that characteristic was shown to be successful. It wasn't talent, social intelligence, physical health, good looks, or (surprisingly) IQ. It was grit. What Angela defines grit as passion and perseverance for very long term goals. I agree with Angela with this concept. This concept is told and taught to us from our families and school. Tell us to work hard and find a career that is best suited for us that we enjoy to do (that's the long term goal part of her definition). Grit is the individual to work towards  something, a goal maybe; and making the possibility a reality. Grit isn't something where you can be lazy, procrastinated or half assed. It's a solid work ethic in which case, deserves to be rewarded with high grades. She says that talent doesn't make success, hard work does, meaning grit is the process in which success will come if you stick at it and keep going. You have to be willing to fail, and start over again. Kicked down, and getting back up. After watching the video, I too am currently working really hard to succeeed. To develop a solid work ethic, and to keep working towards a long term goal. The video was inspiring to watch and is great to learn from.

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. - Thomas A. Edison (http://www.azquotes.com/quote/86500)