I started my third week as an entrepreneur by watching a TED video...or two... or three per day. There's never a dull moment over at TED - so many golden nuggets of ideas! I sorted by "business" and just let the videos play. If I didn't grab an actionable idea from a talk, I almost always found that I was reassured of the path of self-employment-enlightenment-enjoyment-fulfillment that I'm on. I was reassured that I can do this 'workin' for myself' thing.
By the third day of my motivational marathon, I stumbled upon Angela Lee Duckworth's talk about her research on "The key to success." A seemingly intangible, enigma many have tried to grasp, define and understand over the years. I think she and her team have unraveled the mystery. She has determined that true and simple grit is the key to success. Grit. That's it.
Well, what is grit? Grit is a psychological trait measured by one's passion for their goals and their innate motivation to achieve these goals despite set-backs, extended time frames and lack of peer support. Sound familiar, fellow entrepreneurs?
She explains it best:
Being a native Texan, the grittiest of the gritty, this spoke straight to my gritty little heart! Grit don't quit and this little lady ain't afraid to get dirty!
