PILLAR 1- CREATING BOUNDARIES, MODULE 4 - GRIT EQUALS GREAT

PILLAR 1- CREATING BOUNDARIES, MODULE 4 - GRIT EQUALS GREAT

CAPSULE 4 - GRIT EQUALS GREAT Probably the greatest misconceptions are that success requires a special mix of money, support, and talent. One must have the knowledge base or savvy to make it to the top. The person must be a genius in some skill. But, as most successful entrepreneurs can tell you, they did not make their success on intelligence, but on self-discipline, perseverance, and a positive mindset. Consider just a few examples. Simon Cowell is now a household name. He is an icon with many talent shows that has made him quite wealthy. He started as a high-school dropout at 15 years of age to become a mailroom clerk at EMI Music Publishing. This got his sights set on the music industry. After that, he eventually formed E&S Music. While E&S Music folded in its first year and forced Simon to move back with his parents just to survive, he persisted. He then managed to return to work at Fanfare records for eight years and helped it become successful signing talent. Simon parleyed this into the now-popular franchises “American Idol” and “X-Factor.” Harry Potter, the series written by J.K. Rowling is successful because J.K. wrote about her bad experiences from personal life. She decided to cancel all her negative events and make something positively useful from them. These events included living in a small apartment with her daughter on government subsidies, a messy separation, and being without her mother who had just died of multiple sclerosis. Now J.K. Rowling is the second-richest female entertainer on the globe with Oprah still number one. J.K. had her first Harry Potter book rejected by a dozen publishing houses. The eventual publishing house that purchased the series, Bloomsbury, was certain that the manuscript would be successful. The king of creative ingenuity, Walt Disney, started his working career getting fired from the Kansas City Star Newspaper. The reason for his dismissal? Lack of creativity. Laugh-O-Gram Films was his response when in 1921, he managed to get investment funding. Still that folded and he was forced to eat dog food to survive. Disney then went to Universal Studios with his Oswald the Rabbit creation, but they told him it was worthless. When he discovered they patented his creation and stole it themselves to make a profit, he learned a bitter lesson. Walt Disney struggled with his releases of time-honored classics like Bambi, Pollyanna, and Fantasia. When in 1996, his company purchased ABC, it assumed control of the Kansas City Star Newspaper from where Disney was first fired. This brings us to the title topic of grit. What is grit? Additionally, why do you need grit to be great? In short, grit is passion plus perseverance for long term goals. Talent is unrelated to grit. In fact, research has demonstrated that the lower the talent, the higher the grit. Growth mindset is the belief that the ability to learn is not fixed…it can change with your effort. People with grit are more likely to persevere in the face of “failure” situations because they don’t believe that failure is a permanent condition.

PILLAR 1- CREATING BOUNDARIES, MODULE 4 - GRIT EQUALS GREAT So, grit is more important than talent. This was appropriately demonstrated in the famous “Marshmallow Test” by Stanford psychologist Walter Mischel. Performed in the 1960’s, he had the children decide between eating one marshmallow or donut immediately, or, if they waited 15 minutes, they could eat two instead. This test of delayed gratification found only a few four-year-old test subjects willing to wait the 15 minutes. Still, it demonstrated the limited number of individuals who possess true grit. These same study subjects who possessed true grit were reviewed later when in high school. They were found to act better than their peers, were less apt to venture into addiction, and had higher scholastic (SAT) scores. But, the most important part of the test was observing what the few successful four-year-olds did to achieve success to attain their reward at the end of 15 minutes. Their technique, which is important in the application of true grit, is called “strategic allocation of attention.” These children would do whatever it took to avoid giving attention to the single marshmallow or donut in front of them. They would cover their eyes. They would sing songs. They would hum or whistle. In short, their desire was not taken from them. Their desire was merely forgotten for the duration of the test. This sounds like self-control is essential to true grit. Indeed. Angela Duckworth from Harvard University has defined the self-control component of true grit further. She has found it to possess two features. First, true grit includes the capacity to not abandon tasks simply to seek new and novel experiences, called non- “changeability.” Second, true grit does not abandon tasks in the face of obstacles. Put together, these two create the passion plus perseverance for long term goals that fully define true grit. This mirrors the passion and perseverance of Emperor Qin Shihuang who insisted on creating the Great Wall of China as a boundary from the constant distractions of nomadic tribes from the north. Starting with General Meng Tian’s order to combine the six walls of his combined states, Emperor Qin Shihuang persisted in extending the Great Wall to be the greatest construction on Earth. Subsequent dynasties, including the Han and Ming, followed the commitment of Emperor Qin Shihuang with extensions and reconstructions to display true grit protecting against Northern invasions. This persistence lasted for several hundreds of years B.C. to 1644. Emperor Qin did not accept negativity or obstacles that would prevent his army and newly forming country from organizing into a prosperous people. Yes, his soldiers were barbaric and received promotions by severing heads and increasing their head count. Yes, Qin pretended to adopt Confucianism to gain the allegiance of his people. He even gave Confucius a political appointment similar to that of chief of police for a local region. Qin’s general, Meng, did this as a reward for Confucius’ teaching that families should place value on having good conduct and striving to have righteousness. Confucianism served his purposes well. Confucianism included a similar version of the “golden rule” which was to not do to others what you would not want to be done to you. Some have called it the “silver rule” of Confucianism. It also promoted loyalty to family, respect for elders and ancestors, and the importance of defending family roles. Still, it was Emperor Qin’s iron-fisted grit that propelled forward his people, enabling them to eliminate their inner fears of procrastination. Drawing upon inner courage and endurance is the lesson Emperor Qin brings forward to you. Having defined true grit, let’s identify its five characteristics and discover how to cultivate them. Courage is the first characteristic. Courage is measured in proportion to the amount of grit that you have. Courage is the opposite of fear. It is a measure of how much you manage your inner fear. Thus,

PILLAR 1- CREATING BOUNDARIES, MODULE 4 - GRIT EQUALS GREAT what others view as failures, people of courage view as opportunities to improve. It is better to endure hardship and face fear each day. To dare inner fear, daily, is to build strength to succeed in the long run. Conscientiousness is the second characteristic. There are two variations of conscientiousness. One of them is associated with grittiness. You know these as the achiever and the dependable person. Those who are achievers tend to work to complete tasks well and never appear to get exhausted. Those who are dependable display restraint and predictable patterns of work. Researchers followed both groups of individuals and found the dependable subtype of conscientiousness is associated with lack of desire to break cultural boundaries and create new expectations. These findings were associated with the achievers. Endurance is the third characteristic. Achievement, the subset of conscientiousness, is not dependent on talent, but on effort. More specifically, this effort is long-term. Researchers, from Malcolm Gladwell to Angela Duckworth have discovered the same mathematical formula. One must invest a total of 10,000 hours in that activity to master it. This can be arranged in any order, from 20 hours each week spread over a decade to 40 hours spread over five years. Whether it be managing a shoe store to making shoes to building houses to selling Internet products one must invest this same 10,000-hour time of endurance to find mastery. Endurance is a long-haul event. Another characteristic found in individuals with grit is resilience. At one point, resilience was the secret that defined what made “the American Way” so different. It was not that anyone was talented or intelligent. That has already been proven ineffective. Resilience is getting the air knocked out of your lungs, but you still get up and keep going. Resilience is what makes American football popular as that is the essence of the game. Resilience is what makes untamed bronco and bull rodeo performances popular. Why? Those with true grit get back up and continue. True grit individuals also seek excellence rather than hold to the practice of perfectionism. Perfectionistic behavior prevents gritty success because it is demanding and uncompromising. Such personalities are inward-focused misconceptions of reality. Excellence, on the other hand, is an open and forgiving acceptance of disappointment and vulnerability. Excellence’s intent is to improve with an eye on the prize. Exercise To complete your exercise, pull out your small, wire-bound notebook. Begin a page, “grit is passion plus perseverance for long term goals. Talent is unrelated to grit.” Draw a picture of your version of The Great Wall of China as personal symbolism of passion and perseverance. Assess your five characteristics of grit and commit to modifying your life where you identify the room for improvement. Start with courage. Assess your management of fear. Itemize the fears you harbor. Clear them by putting them into perspective. Move to conscientiousness. Decide if you are dependable or achieving. Commit to the achievement mindset, which accepts a life of risks. Identify what you want to endure for 10,000 hours. Write that in your notebook to master. Write examples of how you will begin to practice resilience. Identify your perfectionism. Commit to excellence. Write that you will accept flaws, changes, and improvements that you do not anticipate. Review this statement, daily.