MM#61--Lets Get Gritty

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 am David and welcome back to another Mojo minute, way back and Mojo minute number 33. We covered a pet peeve of mine, the difference between talent versus hard work. In it, we observed how hard work is being ridiculed and our American culture these days, and how a lot of people are just coasting on their talent. Furthermore, we concluded that talent doesn't bring us anything. We agree with Geoff Colvin, that deliberate practice, you know that hard work and getting outside one's comfort zone is a very important characteristic. And then our last Mojo minute, I introduced us to my new favorite author Angela Duckworth, and her super great book, grit, the power of passion and perseverance. And as you learn last time, Angela created the science of grit. And did I tell you last time that this is probably one of my new favorite books of all time, I know I keep repeating myself. It's that good. And, by the way, I highly recommend it. 

And in our last Mojo minute, we called the book grit, our, quote, roadmap to success, unquote. Well, today, let's plan our trip on that roadmap. And as always, let's go to the book for a quote. I have pages and pages of diagrams fillie, more than a dozen lab books. And after more than a decade of thinking about it, sometimes alone, sometimes in partnership with close colleagues, I finally published an article in which I lay down two simple equations that explain how you get from talent to achievement. Talent, here's the first equation talent times effort equals skill. And here's the second equation, skill times effort equals achievement. She goes on talent is how quickly you how quickly your skills improve when you invest effort. Achievement is what happens when you take your acquired skills and use them. Of course, your opportunities, for example, having a great teacher matter matter tremendously to that may be more than anything about the individual. My theory doesn't address these outside forces, nor does it include luck. It's all about the psychology of achievement. But psychology isn't all that matters. It's incomplete. Still, I think it's useful. What this theory says is that when you consider individuals in identical circumstances, what each achieves depends on just two things, Talent and effort. Talent is how fast we can improve a skill absolutely matters. Yes. But effort factors into the calculations twice, not once. Effort builds skill, at the very same time effort makes skill productive, unquote. 

And again, that was Angela Duckworth Duckworth in her great book. Grit, the power of passion and perseverance. And is that not super good insight. I read this paragraph like five times the first time I read it, because I thought it was so good. It was like angels singing and Dante's nine choirs around the beatific vision and Paradise. It really was that good. Okay, maybe that's a little overboard. But seriously, this is some very good, good stuff. So let's recap. Both equations, talent times effort equals skill. And the second equation skills, times effort equals achievement. And here's the key nugget of wisdom. Although talent as defined by Duckworth is how quickly we can improve our skills when we put the effort in. And think of hard work just like we talked about in the Mojo minute number 33. And although talent is important, effort is counted twice. Guess what we are in control of our effort. In our equation. We control how much hard work we exert. It's the number one attribute on the roadmap to success. Just think of sports athletes who certainly had talent.


But the overwhelming majority of us respected them, highly respected them. Because they did not rely on that talent alone. They put in the hard work. Think of the Michael Jordan's. Think of the Kobe Bryant's think of the Tiger Woods. And to put this theory into practice, to keep the name of our podcast in mind. Think of the Larry Bird the great American basketball player. Larry Bird wasn't gifted with a lot of talent, but boy, was he the epitome of hard work. He maximized his potential. And Angela Duckworth in her book grit she quotes Will Smith, a successful American actor to finalize this point. Will Smith says I never viewed myself as particularly talented. Where I excel is ridiculous, sickening, work ethic unquote. So in today's Mojo minute, let us put theory into action. Let us always remember that hard work is a good thing, even when our culture is wrong, and when it discounts hard work. And let us bookmark our roadmap to success. And right in the margins, how important these points are. And most importantly, let us remember Angela Duckworth, science on grit effort counts twice. Again, effort counts twice. Let's roll.

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