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4. How Gritty Are You? a. Story: Lecturing at Wharton business school, an enthusiastic student rushed up to exclaim how gritty he was. He had raised money, pulled several all-nighters, going to heroic lengths to raise the capital. Her response? “Grit is more than intensity. Email me in one or two years if you are still doing the same thing.” b. Grit isn’t just working incredibly hard for a short period of time. It’s working incredibly hard over a long period of time. c. There are no shortcuts to excellence. It all takes time, effort and focus. Rome wasn’t built in a day. d. Grit is working on something you care about so much that you’re willing to stay loyal to it. e. It’s not about just falling in love with what you are doing, it’s staying in love with what you are doing. f. Use the Grit Calculator to find out just how gritty you are….or not. The truth will set you free.
g. Grit has 2 components: passion and perseverance. h. Rather than thinking about intensity, think about consistency. i. Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare. j. Research Jeff Gettleman, Pulitzer Prize winner in international reporting. Passion may not be something you go looking for. But something you create. k. Be strategic. Know the linear path to what you want to be. Step A, step B, step c, etc. l. Don’t think about passion as fireworks. Big, beautiful and an all-out eruption of glory. But quickly fizzle, leaving just wisps of smoke and a memory of what was once spectacular. Think of passion as a compass. It takes time to build, tinker with and finally get right, and that will then guide you on your long and winding road to where, ultimately, you want to be.
m. Pete Carroll: “Do you have a life philosophy?” Clarity is power. What are you doing today? Next week? This year? With your life? What are you trying to become? n. Pete’s philosophy: “Do things better than they have ever been done before.” o. Be prepared to have a philosophy that drives your actions. p. Look at goals in a hierarchical way. Low-level → mid-level → top-level. i. Low-level: are concrete and specific. Short-term to-do list. They are a means to an end. ii. The higher the goal, the more it is an “end” not the “means”.
iii. Example: I want to get out of the door by 8 am. Why? I want to be punctual. Why? Because it shows respect. Why does that matter? Because you strive to be a good leader. See the progression from a low-level to a high-level goal? q. Passion is not just something you care about. You care about it in a way that makes it the “ultimate goal”. You pursue it in an abiding, loyal, steady way. You are not capricious, bouncing “to and fro”. You are doggedly focused and resilient. r. Grit is about holding the same top-level goal for a very long time.
s. Be cognizant of “positive fantasizing” where we see the vision, but don’t see the steps to get there. We don’t take into account the long-term costs and therefore lose our flair for it. t. Silo your goals. Top-level goals are “ultimate concerns”. Some will come at the sacrifice of others. u. The more unified, aligned and coordinated our goal hierarchies, the better we will be able to accomplish these things. v. Warren Buffets pilot method: i. Write down at least 25 career goals. ii. Soul search and circle five of the highest-priority goals. Just five. iii. Take a hard look at the 20 other goals and avoid them at all costs. They will distract you. They eat away time and energy, taking your eye from the goals that matter more. w. Is it really that simple? Yes, our ability to succeed is in direct proportion to your ability to focus on things that matter most. Face the fact that time and energy are limited. x. Any successful person must decide what to do in part by deciding what not to do. y. You need one internal compass – not two, three, four, or five. z. Lower-level goals are writing in pencil. Higher-level goals are written in ink. aa. Green Berets motto: “Improvise, adapt, overcome” good words to live by. bb. All great cartoons have one thing in common: they made the reader think. cc. All great cartoonists have another common thread: they all have their own personal style. dd. The great cartoonist Robert Mankoff was rejected by The New Yorker 2,000+ times. With a clear vision, a belief he could do it, Bob reached his dream of being a contract cartoonist for The New Yorker. ee. It is forgivable and even necessary to give up on low-level goals for something better. ff. Find your compass. Once you do, and you find all the parts and put it all together, it will point you in the same direction, week after week, month after month. gg. Passion indicators i. The Degree to which one works with distant objects in view (as opposed to living from hand to mouth). Active preparation for later life. Working toward a definite goal. ii. The tendency not to abandon tasks for mere changeability. Not seeking something fresh because of novelty. Not “looking for a change.” hh. Grit indicators i. Degree of strength of will or perseverance. Quiet determination to stick to a course once decided up. ii. Tenacity not to abandon tasks in the face of obstacles. Perseverance, tenacity, doggedness. ii. "High, but not the highest intelligence, combined with the greatest degree of persistence, will achieve greater eminence than the highest degree of intelligence with somewhat less persistence." Catharine Cox