What if the Secret to' Success, Is Failure?

8' PAutfOrJ(JH

f~iNew Y6rk 'fimes, Septemoaf14,; 2011

DominiC: Randolph -= headmaster ottbe: IQvefdale C:oun'ttY Schao} with IItuW()l1 of $38.500 per year
David Levin =tile co-..iouIider (!if th:e: m:v network 6! cliarfet sthoolg which tend to lower itteome inner city youth
M'attiii' SelIgman -- psyC&oio~' professor at the' UiilvetSlty (j(PennsJ'lvliiilli
ChriStopher Peferson.- psychology professot at the: UiUversity ()f Mfcldgan

The masi: mtic:~lmissing pie'Ce.,Randolph explained, as we sat in,his o:ffic'elast fall, is character
.= those essential traits oItnma and habit that were drilled into him at boarding school in
"
IDlgland. and that als9' have' deep roots in Ainetican history. "Whether irs the pioneer in the
G6ttest.Qga wagoIt Of,'someone GOming, here m the 1920S from so-uthern Italy, there was this idea
In Ameti~ that if you worked hard and you, showed real grit, that you could be successful," he
said. "Strangely, we've now fotgott~fi that. People who have an easy time of things, who get Boos
em their SA~sj t worry that those people get feedback that everything theyre doing is great. And
I think as a reslllt, we ate actually setting them up for long ..term failure. When that person
SUddenly has t~ f~ce: up to a,dlffi~t moment" then I think they're screwed, to be honest. I don't
think theyve' gr(;)Wfi the' capacities to' be able to handle that."

AS LeVlfi.watclted the progress of those KlPP' alurilni he noticed something curious: the
students who persisted in college were not necessatilythe ones who had excelled academically at
taPP'i theywete the c;>ttes with exceptional character strengthsslike optimism and. persistence
artchoGial ~te1tig.ence ..They-were the ones' who were able t~ recover froUla bad. grade and
t

t,eSolve tG do l>e1fernext timet to OOUfice back from a fight with their parents; to resist the urge

. to' go out to the movies and stay home and studyin.stead~; to persuade prof-essors to give them
extra betp after Glass. Those skills Weren~tenough on their own to earn students a B.A., Levin

f{jf young pe9ple without the benefit ot a lot of family resources, without the kind of
that their'Wealthief peer-s enjoYed; they seemed an indispensable part of making it to
gtaduation day.

knew ..But

safe~

li~

Atigela DUGkw'oftb, a graduate student in.Seligman's department (she is now an assistant

prd{essot1 Game to Penn in 2.o0~at the: age of 32, after working {or a decade as a teacher and a
ch:arter-;..sclioolconsultant. tNfhe' problem, I think, is not only the schools but also the students
themselves/" DuGkw'ortliWIote. "Herets why: learning is hard. True, learning is fun, exhilarating
and gIati:f}ring."'"'" but it is also often daunting, exhausting and sometimes discouraging .... To
help chronlcaUyloW''''pert.grmfng but intelligent students, educators and parents mustfirst
reoogniZe'thatchataGtet is at least as i.mportant as,intellect.'" While self-control seemed to be a
crltlc~1-ingredient: m. attaining basicsuccess, Duckworth came to fe'el it wasn't as relevant when
it ~e t.o outs'tanding ~chiev~ment:. People'who' accomplished great things, she noticed, often
combmed a passion for' a single. mission 'With an unswerving dedication to achieve that mission,
whatever the obstacles and howevef 16ng it might take. She decided she needed to name this
q.uality,. andShe chose the word "grie'
She dev~loped a test to meaSUl'e griff wliich she called the Grit: Scale. It is a.deceptively simple
test~in.that it tequi~es y<!u. to rateyourself on just, ~?:questions, from i'l finish whatever I begin"
to' ''1 often set a,goal but later choose to' pursue ~ different one," It takes about three minutes to
complete, and it relfes entirely on se1f:"report - and yet when Duckworth took it out into the
field, slie f~uiidit was r~mar~bly predictive of success. At Penn, high grit ratings allowed
stud~fits with te1atittelY'low c'Ollege"ooard seores to nonetheless achieve high G.P .A.'s.
Duckwottlt and her' collaborators gave' their grit test to more than 1,200 freshman cadets as they
entered West PolIif and, embarke'd on the grueling summer training course known as Beast
I