Today's presentation was a TED Talk by Angela Lee Duckworth.
Angela had a stressful career, then she changed to become a grade 7 math teacher. More stressful.
She observed that IQ or intelligence was not an indicator of students success in math. As a teacher, she believed all the students were capable of the material and concepts. She became very interested in why some students succeeded and others did not, even smart kids did not succeed.
After a few years teaching she went back to school to study psychology. She investigated who is successful and why using students at West Point, national spelling bee kids and rookie teachers as well as others.
What she believes makes people successful is Grit. Those with Grit, having the passion and perseverance to push through adversity and failures will be successful. This is the ability to stay with it, to not give up. To be motivated.
Having Grit matters. The question now is, how do we develop or obtain Grit. We know little about it. We need a growth mindset, the ability to learn and not be afraid of failure, that failure in not permanent. We need to be willing to fail, to be gritty.