"True Grit" matters - on the raising of children in today's self-esteem-over-performance culture
As a parent of two young kids, it was great to read this piece on the work of Angela Duckworth at Penn. It talks about what character traits you should be focused upon to help your children succeed.
In a world where we celebrate everything in a child's life, the real lessons of hard work, persistent, and long-term payoff are often overlooked.
I am a huge fan of the belief that multi-year focus on some form of personal achievement, be it music, art, or sport is one of the most important true growth investments a young individual can make in himself/herself. It is not about comparative levels of performance. It is all about what you can personally achieve in life through concerted effort.
I talk to my son all the time about my own experiences to become a ranked fencer, and what it was like in my first years of of national competition (quite humbling at times), where I managed my definition of "success" by continuing to set personal growth goals each year. I came away from my time in sport with some invaluable lessons around focus and dedication - lessons I am now trying to pass on to my kids.
Through my venture investment work, I see lessons about grit everyday, When I see my friends in the startup space in action, I see the same common flame burns bright within them. They have "true grit", and they inspire me each day, for which I am truly grateful.
To read more on Angela's work, you can start here: http://www.incharacter.org/article.php?article=147
