GRIT: WHY TALENT NEEDS DRIVE TO SUCCEED

“What is grit? Angela Duckworth, a psychology professor at University of Pennsylvania’s School of Arts and Sciences, says it is the capacity to work hard and stay focused. In her recent book, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, she explains why grit is necessary in addition to talent, and why talent needs the drive that grit provides in order for one be successful.” - Knowledge Wharton

This podcast echoes the pretty popular rhetoric of talent not being “enough”. It reiterates what we’ve all pretty much heard our entire lives– the need for motivation, drive, and that extra push to propel that talent into success, whatever that may be. But an awfully cynical person, I am a strong believer in luck, more so than both talent and drive. I do not discount the purpose of ability and grit, but I’ve met too many ambitious and talented individuals across a wide spectrum of interests, unhappy in their quests for success, to believe that those alone suffice. We’ve read many “breaking into IB” success stories on this forum, where people networked like crazy until they found that one person who gave them a chance to display their skill and be successful in it thereafter. How about those people who never met that one person?