Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
(New
York: Ballantine Books, 2008).
See Carol S. Dweck, “Mindsets and Human Nature: Promoting Change in the Middle East, the
Schoolyard, the Racial Divide, and Willpower,” 
American Psychologist
(2012): 614–22.
Brian Galla et al., “Intellective, Motivational, and Self-Regulatory Determinants of High School Grades, SAT
Scores, and College Persistence” (manuscript under review, 2015).
:
For more information on KIPP, see 
www.kipp.org
.
This thesaurus was originally developed by psychologist David Yeager, whom I thank for this
age-general revision. On generic statements, see Daeun Park et al., “How Do Generic Statements Impact Performance? Evidence
for Entity Beliefs,” 
Developmental Science
(in press, 2015). And finally, on the importance of a “genuine” growth mindset, see Carol
S. Dweck, “Carol Dweck Revisits the ‘Growth Mindset’ ” 
Education Week
, September 22, 2015.
James Baldwin, 
Nobody Knows My Name
(New York: Vintage Books, 1993), 61–62.
:
Daeun Park et al., “Young Children’s Motivational Frameworks and Math Achievement:
Relation to Teacher-Reported Instructional Practices, but Not Teacher Theory of Intelligence,” 
Journal of Educational Psychology
(in press, 2015).
Kyla Haimovitz and Carol S. Dweck, “What Predicts Children’s Fixed and Growth Mindsets? Not Their
Parent’s Views of Intelligence But Their Parents’ Views of Failure” (manuscript under review, 2015).
:
Harvard Business Review Staff, “How Companies Can Profit from a ‘Growth Mindset’ ” 
Harvard
Business Review
, November 2014.
Bill McNabb, CEO of Vanguard, in an interview with the author, August 20, 2015.
Friedrich Nietzsche, 
The Anti-Christ, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols: and Other Writings
, ed. Aaron
Ridley, trans. Judith Norman (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 157.
Kanye West, “Stronger,” 
Graduation
, 2007. Kelly Clarkson sings a popularized version of the phrase, “What
doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” in “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You),” 
Stronger
, 2011.
In fact, the idea that suffering can make us more capable is timeless. Every major religious tradition includes a
parable where suffering is necessary for enlightenment. The Latin root of the word 
passion
is 
pati
, which means “to suffer.” 
OED

---

Online, Oxford University Press, September 2015.
:
For more information on Outward Bound, see 
www.outwardbound.org
.
:
John A. Hattie, Herbert W. Marsh, James T. Neill, and Garry E. Richards, “Adventure Education and
Outward Bound: Out-of-Class Experiences That Make a Lasting Difference,” 
Review of Educational Psychology
67 (1997): 43–
87.
Maier and Seligman, “Learned Helplessness.”
Kenneth H. Kubala et al., “Short- and Long-Term Consequences of Stressor Controllability in
Adolescent Rats,” 
Behavioural Brain Research
234 (2012): 278–84.
:
Steven F. Maier, professor of psychology and director of the Center for Neuroscience at the University of
Colorado at Boulder, in an interview with the author, April 2, 2015.
Not coincidentally, Milton Hershey himself exemplified grit, having started several unsuccessful companies
before developing, through trial and error, a formula for milk chocolate that would soon make his company the largest confectionary in
the world. He and his wife could not have children and therefore created the Hershey School, which owns a controlling interest in
Hershey stock. For more information on the Milton Hershey School and its founder, visit 
www.mhskids.org
.
If you want to hear Kayvon’s music, visit 
www.kayvonmusic.com
.
Sue Ramsden et al., “Verbal and Non-Verbal Intelligence Changes in the Teenage Brain,”