It turns out that passion and perseverance are more important than innate intelligence in achieving success.

The difference between ordinary people and successful people does not lie in the disparity in strength or the amount of knowledge, but in the lack of will.

—Vince Lombardi

Steve Jobs, Colin Powell, Michael Jordan—these famous figures who excel in their respective fields, their names have become Synonymous with excellence and achievement. But other than that, you probably never realized there were any similarities between them.

What relationship could one of the computer software industry's most transformative pioneers have with the players who decide the outcome of a basketball game, or the makers of U.S. foreign policy? Likewise, what does the exploits of the greatest basketball player who influenced an entire generation have to do with the achievements of the elite in Silicon Valley or the Pentagon?

In fact, these three successful people share a very surprising trait. They were all so ordinary that almost no one could predict their future greatness. They have all been overlooked and underestimated, and their talents are severely underestimated.

Steve Jobs had a 2.65 grade point average in high school, and he didn’t even finish his freshman year of college. When he was a sophomore in high school, Michael Jordan ran home crying because his basketball coach thought he had no basketball talent and could not meet the requirements of the school team. Colin Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was a very ordinary student who lacked self-confidence in high school. Not long ago, he said in an interview: "I never thought I would become an important person. I was just an ordinary kid with average grades. I grew up in an ordinary family. There was nothing special about me."

So, what changed Powell’s life trajectory? Why do countless successful people fail to demonstrate obvious gifts, aptitudes, or abilities early on? How do you keep up in the race of life when you can't hit the high SAT or Ivy League scores and don't have the backing of a strong family fortune?

It turns out that those who make it to the end are often those who are truly diligent, not just talented. Success belongs to the perseverant.

Perseverance is hard work, the courage to take risks, firm will, persistence in goals, calmly facing challenges, and having the passion and perseverance to overcome difficulties no matter how difficult the situation is.

Perhaps the reason why we favor perseverance is because it is not something we are born with but can be learned.

In fact, starting with the ancient Greek philosophers, the importance of perseverance and hard work has been considered core elements in raising and educating the next generation.

When referring to the virtue of hard work, Aristotle said: "The meaning of our existence lies in what we do repeatedly. Excellence is not an act, but a habit.

Everyone can benefit from learning about hard work—the U.S. Department of Education is now encouraging the teaching of grit and resilience in students

Megan Dunn supports it. is the founder of Riverdale Avenue Community School in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, where many of her students have been in bad circumstances, but she believes grit is the path to success

She urges. She encourages students by teaching them problem-solving skills by stepping out of their comfort zones—taking city kids to camp; letting them play chess or participate in team sports—so they learn how to handle failure gracefully. , she would ask students: “What do you think? ” or “What would you do?” "She encourages parents to let their children do what they are doing. Even if it is difficult, let the children do it on their own. She tells parents not to help their children pack for camping trips because students will not be able to find what they are looking for. Needing something and not knowing how to repack it

For Megan, forgetting the flashlight was not a matter of life or death, but a teaching opportunity as the kids grew up knowing how to think and. program.

She believes it’s the little things that teach children about perseverance, like taking on household chores and responsibilities and helping adults.

Bob Deutsch is a. A cognitive neuroscientist, anthropologist, geopolitical analyst, and business consultant, he has a unique perspective on the role grit plays in our lives.

“There are different degrees of grit,” Dr. Deutsch tells us. “It is not a unified, universal, absolute right or wrong concept. A million people have grit, a million Ten thousand people don’t have perseverance. But for those who don’t, at least 80% of them can become perseverant.” In other words, perseverance is a trait that can be adopted or developed by an individual. Skills that can be learned.

Our research and experience also tell us that grit contains 4 core elements.

1. Courage

To be perseverant, you must first have the courage to accept difficult challenges and not shrink from adversity. General Patton believed that courage is "persisting in the face of fear for more than one minute." Courage is when you are confident and courageous about the risks you are going to take (without being rash). Courage allows you to stand up and declare your determination to succeed, even when success seems out of reach.

2. Adaptability

Some of the world’s most accomplished people may also fail school, drop out, be fired from their company, kicked out by their family, or encounter major setbacks , life reaches its lowest point. But they all stood up again from adversity.

Jerry Seinfeld was booed the first time he performed on stage. Steven Spielberg took three exams to get into film school.

However, neither humiliation nor failure destroyed their firm belief.

Research shows that regardless of failure, setbacks, and adversity, people with higher levels of grit are able to stay focused and motivated.

George Foreman is an overweight retired boxer who won two heavyweight boxing championships and an Olympic gold medal. When he went bankrupt, at the age of 45, he put on the boxing gloves again, regained his victory, and regained the title of heavyweight champion. He used his winnings to pay off all his debts and start operating the George Foreman Grill.

Today, he is worth approximately US$200 million. Adaptability gives him the ability to be tough but not rigid. This ability allows you to always take advantage of opportunities—even if you've bought a ticket to Maui, Hawaii, what's the problem if you adjust the trip to North Dakota?

3. Initiative

By definition, initiative means being a person who takes the initiative in doing things. It makes you energetic and perseverant and able to take action. People usually examine whether leaders have the ability to take the initiative. But the most telling examples of initiative don't occur in boardrooms or on battlefields.

Our most talked-about example occurs in the African savanna. A 13-year-old boy, Richard Turiri, was saddened to discover that his family's cow had been killed by a lion. How can such attacks be avoided in the future?

The Masai boy was guarding the cattle pen late at night, trying hard to protect the safety of his family's animals. At this time, he discovered that the lion approaching quietly would be affected as long as it saw the light of the flashlight in his hand. Frightened and ran away.

So, he connected the collected solar cells and flashlights together to make a "Lion Ray" fence, which effectively blocked the arrival of predators. What is the moral of this story? If you are smarter than your opponent, you don't have to try to be stronger or faster than him.

4. Resilience

Resilience is the ability to stay focused on a goal.

This is perhaps the most identifiable quality associated with perseverance. We can see that this quality is most vividly displayed when every athlete encounters a setback, fails to win an Olympic gold medal, or fails to win a championship.

Every Nobel Prize winner has shed sweat in countless failed experiments; they have also made world-shaking discoveries after changing fields when their research reached a dead end.

Every entrepreneur has struggled, launched a new service or product, and ultimately changed the way we live.

Resilience requires diligence and determination, and it led the United States to the pinnacle of industrialization when it recovered from the Great Depression of the 20th century. But in today’s digital age, this quality is increasingly difficult to see.

Studies by researchers such as K. Anders Erickson of Florida State University show that mastering a superlative skill and being able to reach your full potential requires spending It will take at least 10 years, and you have to choose the right direction of development.

Someone asked the world-famous cellist Pablo Casals: "Why do you still spend 3 hours practicing every day at the age of 93?" He replied: "That way I will know. Where can we improve?"

The scientific discussion about success has just begun, and we have a lot to learn.

Give some opportunities to learn perseverance.

As parents, mentors, friends or bosses, we can not only provide help and guidance to those around us, encourage them to develop perseverance, but also guide them to cultivate themselves. Positive feedback is very important.

If a report brief is poorly done, don’t push it back and ask someone to redo it, but tell them (nicely) how they could do it better.

Next time your kids ask you for their favorite peanut butter, banana sandwich, or mac and cheese, instead of making it for them, show them how to make these treats.

Complete your own list.

As the first grit exercise, make a list of things you want to accomplish and commit to completing at least one of them this week. It might be a very small, mindless task, like cleaning out a drawer.

Other tasks may require some time to think about, such as conducting reading on a topic that may be useful to you in your future professional or personal life. Make a commitment to yourself to complete everything on your list within 1 month. Knowing you can't give up will force you to overcome any challenge, learn new things, and prove to yourself that your capabilities are limitless—your abilities will grow.