Talent vs Grit

In a recent episode of Maya Shankar’s podcast, she had an episode titled The Science of Grit., where guest Angela Duckworth defined grit as “a power combo of passion and perseverance”.

The crux of the episode was about the difference between “grit” and “talent”, not unlike the comparison I made with “talent” and “skill” in the movie Rudy. You’re born with talent — you work with grit.

Actor Will Smith is famous for his work ethic, and this video shows a bit of what he means:

If you can’t see the video, the main part of Smith’s talk is this:

You might have more talent than me
You might be smarter than me
You might be sexier than me
You might be all of those things.
You got it on me in 9 categories.
But if we get on a treadmill together, right, there’s two things:
You’re getting off first, or I’m gonna die.
It’s really that simple.

Baseball

It reminds me of my time in Little League Baseball and a teammate named Tim. Tim was incredibly talented, but incredibly lazy. He could have been the best ballplayer in our city, but chose…