MM#106--March Madness SPECIAL--GRIT + Toughness & Two Unique Storylines = A Fascinating Tourney

Welcome to the theory to action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time to help you take action immediately, and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now, here's your host, David Kaiser.


Hello, I'm David and welcome back to another special Mojo minute March Madness edition. Well, well, well. This NCAA tournament so far has brought us some fascinating storylines, but none more so than last night's history making affair. That first storyline to pay attention to was history was made last night when the 15th seed peacocks of St. Peter's upset the number three seed Boilermakers of Purdue in a tightly fought battle the whole game came down to the wire but ultimately the peacocks prevailed. The final score was 6764 in sweet 16 stunner. And boy did New York City in New Jersey celebrate that's where St. Peters is from. And rightly so. After all, it was a historic night. The peacocks win advanced them to the round of the Elite Eight something no other 15th seed has ever reached. They will face off against the vana blueblood club of North Carolina Tar Heels in the East regional final. And now in the previous history of the NCAA tournament, the lowest seed to make it to the Elite Eight was the 2002 Missouri tiger team. 

And they had a Cinderella run as a 12 seed and they were coached by quin Snyder. And as you might remember, they were knocked off by Oklahoma in the elite a game. And then ultimately Maryland won that tournament under the leadership of head coach Gary Williams. But back to last night's action, I thought Purdue coach MATT PAINTER had the most classic quote, to uniquely capture the essence of St. Peter's win over Purdue. He said they beat us like they beat the other two teams. Strong will grimy tough into you. Unquote. So I heartfelt congratulations are in order to the peacocks on their deep run into this March Madness this year of March Madness. And now the other storyline to follow is the late game tonight. Featuring the Duke Blue Devils with the greatest NCAA basketball coach in the 21st century, which we've covered here before Mike chef ski versus the Arkansas Razorbacks, this storyline is intriguing because as we've told you here before Coach K, perhaps has his young team hitting just the right stride at just the right time. Can this last chapter of Coach K's extremely successful career be written with a storybook ending by winning a national championship? 

That's a great question and a very intriguing storyline. Now some might say Coach K's storybook ending is almost, quote meant to be because one of the most intriguing and interesting stats going into Dukes game against Texas Tech on Thursday night was that entering the game Duke had lost their previous three NCAA Tournament games when they were on the west coast. So they had some mental mental roadblock that they could not pull out any games on the West Coast and previous NCAA tournaments. But they did pull it out. They managed to get a victory. And they changed that bad history in that troubling stat line. Now, early early Friday morning the game was Thursday night but it extended well past midnight. The great CBS sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson asked Coach K after the game. How about the grit in the fight that this young team continually shows you? What about that coach? Coach K remarked you said it better than me Tracy you said it better than me. He then proceeded to get choked up and was holding back his emotion. You could really tell Coach K was very proud of his young players. He bursted out in disjointed sentences because of that emotion. Quote, It was grit and determination. Paulo speak Thinking of one of his players, some of his moves. I coached that guy Holy mackerel, unquote. So you can see in both storylines, a common thread and St. Peters and in the Duke game, grit, determination, toughness.

These three traits are what is common with all these elite teams, with all the Elite Eight teams for that matter, but most especially with Duke and St. Peters, which reminds me of two common links to how our modern day college basketball game and sports in general are a microcosm of life. And please allow me to expand on this point real quick. In our mojo Minute Book of the day, Angela Duckworth work, Duckworth rather, Angela Duckworth wrote in her fantastic book, book, grit, the power of passion and perseverance, which we covered in past Mojo minutes number 60, and 61. So if you want some extra credit, be sure to go back and listen to them. I would highly encourage it. 

But in today's nugget of wisdom, she shares with us an important point that we can see in both basketball games from the last two nights. Let's go the book. quote by the time you set foot on the campus of the United States Military Academy at West Point, you have earned it. How so? Well, here are some bullet points. The admissions process for West Point is as least as it is as least as rigorous as for highly selective universities across the country. Top AC T and LSAT scores are a must as our outstanding high school grades, you need to secure a nomination from a member of Congress, a senator or the Vice President of the United States. If that doesn't create a high bar mentally, then the requirements for running push ups sit ups and pull ups will push you physically. Each year roughly 14,000 people apply. The pool is cut to just 4000 then slightly more than half of those about 2500 are put in the final selection process. And from that final selection process, some 1200 are selected, admitted and enrolled. Nearly all of the men and women who come to West Point are varsity athletes, and most were team captains. 

Now all that comes to us from Angela Duckworth in her book. It's one of my favorite books. I think I mentioned this that on this podcast before. So to say once you've reached West Point you have certainly earned it is an understatement. But here is the most important stats of them all. Let's go back to the book. Quote, one in five cadets will drop out before graduation. And a substantial number of them will leave in their very first summer during an intensive week, seven week training program called beast barracks, or for short, just beast unquote. Dang. After spending two years, these cadets will drop out within seven weeks of starting their journey. Now let's just remember, you know, these are studs. I mean the man are studs, the women are incredibly gifted. And we're getting the best of the best of the young people going through this. And they drop out within seven weeks after being challenged in a formal way among this seven week process of beast and Beast barracks. Now here's officially the Westpoint handbook for new cadets. Here's the official description of beast. It's the most physically and emotionally demanding part of your four year career at West Point. And it's designed to help you make the transition from a new Cadet to a soldier unquote. Now you can check out the book for the details of the grueling schedule each day for these new Cadet these new cadets. The ponder that stat we just talked about a substantial amount of the dropouts are happening in the first seven weeks in the Corps. So we have to ask is why Angela's book details all the reasons why. But we can sum it up quickly with this paragraph. Because Angela's book is just, it's so great because she's able to measure the intangible. But let's go back to the book.

Quote in July 2004, on the second day of beast 1218, West Point cadets sat down to take the grit scale. Initially, I looked to see how grit scores lined up with aptitude. Guess what? Grit scores bore absolutely no relationship to the whole Cadet score that had been so painstakingly calculated during the admissions process. In other words, how talented a cadet was said nothing about their grit score and vice versa. Unquote. Ah, so here we go. Talent bore no resemblance to the grit that these cadets which show now there's a difference. And now we're on to something where I should say Angela was on the something. Now logically shooting the most talented of these cadets have stuck around and tried harder? Because when they would, they would do phenomenally well. But how could they not understand that? Or how can they not know to put in that work? 

And let's go back to the book for the answer. quote by the last day of beast 71 cadets have dropped out. Grit turned out to be an astounding reliable predictor of who made it through and who did not. The next year, I returned to West Point to run the same study. This time 62 cadets dropped out of beast and again, grit, predicted who would stay and contrast stairs and levers and indistinguishable whole candidate scores. I looked a little closer at the individual components that made up the score. Again, no difference. So what matters for making it through beast? And here's the most important point of this nugget. Not your LSAT scores, not your high school rank, not your leadership experience, and not your athletic ability, and certainly not your whole candidate score. What matters is grit. Unquote.

Boy, that's a great nugget of wisdom. So in today's Mojo minute as we watch some great basketball this evening. And as a as a real quick aside, boy, is this not been a heck of a tournament already. I mean, the only thing we're missing from this tournament so far is perhaps some buzzer beaters, which normally happens in every tournament and we haven't had that yet. But well, maybe that's an you know, maybe the basketball gods are putting that in the recipe soup for tonight and tomorrow. That would be fantastic if we could get some buzzer beaters. 

But back to this nugget of wisdom. let's ponder the intangible virtues that life offers us. And as basketball and sports are that microcosm of life that we talked about before, let's observe those guys that are the most gritty. And these basketball games, these four basketball games left remaining. Let us also appreciate those in our lives, our friends, our neighbors, our family members that do show a sense of grittiness. It's a wonderful virtue to acquire and hold on to those folks that observed that old famous Japanese saying fall down seven rise up eight. That unique combination of passion and perseverance, and a never give up attitude which makes up grit. And then today, let us begin to follow their example and show some grit in our own lives too. Because when we do, it'll be fun to watch ourselves in the game of life. Just like we watch these incredible basketball players in their basketball games. In a flourishing life, we'll be right around the corner and our lives to enjoy the game folks.

Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this theory to action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at T Mojo academy.com where we have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on