I was browsing through Ted Talks recently when I came across a video entitled “The key to success? Grit”. Intrigued on what the speaker would have say on this subject, I clicked on it. The speaker was Angela Lee Ducksworth, a psychologist who found that talent doesn’t always mean success. After numerous studies at different locations, Ducksworth and her team came to the conclusion that the most common characteristic to success is “grit”, which was defined as having passion for a long term goal, and persevering through tough situations not just for a day or week, but for years.

I believe this applies to us business students because everyone has failures, failures in school work, business ventures, or even just getting a girl/guy. It is important to see a failure not as a sign to stop trying, but as a motivator to try even harder. We need to have grit, and strive no matter how many failures we endure to reach the our end goal. I’m glad to have come across this video, it has strengthened my resolve to succeed in school.

The Ted Talk Video: http://video.ted.com/talk/podcast/2013S/None/AngelaDuckworth_2013S.mp4