One final thought.
Earlier this year, the latest MacArthur genius awards were announced. One of the winners was Ta-Nehisi Coates, the journalist whose second book, Between the World and Me, has been an extraordinary best seller.
Eight years ago, Coates was unemployed, recently laid off by Time magazine, and scrambling to get freelance work. It was a hard time. He guesses he gained thirty pounds from the strain. “I knew what kind of writer I wanted to be. I was not becoming that kind of writer. I was banging my head against a wall and nothing was coming out.”
His wife, he says, was “unerringly supportive.” Still, they had a young son. There were practical realities. “I was considering driving a cab.”
He finally got back on his feet, and after pushing through the “extraordinary stress” of his book, he began to hit his stride. “The writing was very, very different. The sentences had much more power.”
In his three-minute video posted on the MacArthur website, the first thing Coates says is: “Failure is probably the most important factor in all of my work. Writing is failure. Over and over and over again.” Then he explains, that as a boy, he was insatiably curious. Growing up in Baltimore, he was particularly obsessed with the idea of physical safety, and the lack thereof, and has remained so since. Journalism, he says, lets him keep asking the questions that interest him.
Toward the end of the video, Coates offers the best description of what it’s like to write that I’ve ever heard. To give you a sense of his intonation, and the cadence, I’ve laid out the words as I heard them—as a poem:
The challenge of writing
Is to see your horribleness on page.
To see your terribleness
And then to go to bed.
And wake up the next day,
And take that horribleness and that terribleness,
And refine it,
And make it not so terrible and not so horrible.
And then to go to bed again.
And come the next day,
And refine it a little bit more,
And make it not so bad.
And then to go to bed the next day.
And do it again,
And make it maybe average.
And then one more time,
If you’re lucky,
Maybe you get to good.
And if you’ve done that,
That’s a success.
You might think Coates is especially modest. He is. But he’s also especially gritty. And I’ve yet to meet a MacArthur Fellow, Nobel laureate, or Olympic champion who says that what they achieved came in any other way.
“You’re no genius,” my dad used to say when I was just a little girl. I realize now he was talking to himself as much as he was talking to me.
If you define genius as being able to accomplish great things in life without effort, then he was right: I’m no genius, and neither is he.
But if, instead, you define genius as working toward excellence, ceaselessly, with every element of your being—then, in fact, my dad is a genius, and so am I, and so is Coates, and, if you’re willing, so are you.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
When I pick up a book for the first time, I immediately flip to the Acknowledgments. Like many readers, I’m eager to peek behind the curtain; I want to meet the cast and crew responsible for the show. Writing my own book has only deepened my appreciation for the team effort that any work represents. If you like this book, please know that credit for its creation is shared among the wonderful human beings recognized here. It’s time for these many supporters to step out into the footlights for a moment and take a well-deserved bow. If I’ve left anyone in the wings, I apologize; any omissions are inadvertent.
First and foremost, I want to thank my collaborators. I wrote this book in the first-person singular, using “I” when, in fact, pretty much everything I’ve done as a researcher or writer was accomplished by a plurality. The “we” who deserve credit—in particular coauthors on published research—are named individually in the Notes. On their behalf, I extend a heartfelt thanks to our research teams who, collectively, made this research possible.
As for the book itself, I have three individuals to thank in particular: First and foremost, I am eternally grateful to my editor, Rick Horgan, who improved my writing and thinking more than I thought was possible. If I’m lucky, he’ll let me work with him again (and again). Max Nesterak was my day-to-day editor, research assistant, and conscience. Put simply, were it not for Max, this book would not be in your hands today. And, finally, my fairy godfather and agent, Richard Pine, is the person who originally, and finally, made this book a reality. Eight years ago, Richard wrote me an email asking, “Has anyone ever told you that you ought to write a book?” I demurred. Gritty and gallant, he kept asking, but never pushing, until I was ready. Thank you, Richard, for everything.
The following scholars were kind enough to review drafts of this book, discuss their relevant work, or both—of course, any errors that remain are mine: Elena Bodrova, Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, Dan Chambliss, Jean C?té, Sidney D’Mello, Bill Damon, Nancy Darling, Carol Dweck, Bob Eisenberger, Anders Ericsson, Lauren Eskreis-Winkler, Ronald Ferguson, James Flynn, Brian Galla, Margo Gardner, Adam Grant, James Gross, Tim Hatton, Jerry Kagan, Scott Barry Kaufman, Dennis Kelly, Emilia Lahti, Reed Larson, Luc Leger, Deborah Leong, Susan Mackie, Steve Maier, Mike Matthews, Darrin McMahon, Barbara Mellers, Cal Newport, Gabrielle Oettingen, Daeun Park, Pat Quinn, Ann Renninger, Brent Roberts, Todd Rogers, James Rounds, Barry Schwartz, Marty Seligman, Paul Silvia, Larry Steinberg, Rong Su, Phil Tetlock, Chia-Jung Tsay, Eli Tsukayama, Elliot Tucker-Drob, George Vaillant, Rachel White, Dan Willingham, Warren Willingham, Amy Wrzesniewski, and David Yeager.
I was shocked, and so deeply moved, that the following individuals were willing to share their stories for this book; even when I wasn’t able to include details in the book itself, their perspectives deepened my understanding of grit and its development: Hemalatha Annamalai, Kayvon Asemani, Michael Baime, Jo Barsh, Mark Bennett, Jackie Bezos, Juliet Blake, Geoffrey Canada, Pete Carroll, Robert Caslen, Ulrik Christensen, Kerry Close, Roxanne Coady, Kat Cole, Cody Coleman, Daryl Davis, Joe de Sena, Tom Deierlein, Jamie Dimon, Anson Dorrance, Aurora Fonte, Franco Fonte, Bill Fitzsimmons, Rowdy Gaines, Antonio Galloni, Bruce Gemmell, Jeffrey Gettleman, Jane Golden, Temple Grandin, Mike Hopkins, Rhonda Hughes, Michael Joyner, Noa Kageyama, Paige Kimble, Sasha Kosanic, Hester Lacey, Emilia Lahti, Terry Laughlin, Joe Leader, Michael Lomax, David Luong, Tobi Lütke, Warren MacKenzie, Willy MacMullen, Bob Mankoff, Alex Martinez, Francesca Martinez, Tina Martinez, Duff McDonald, Bill McNabb, Bernie Noe, Valerie Rainford, Mads Rasmussen, Anthony Seldon, Will Shortz, Chantel Smith, Are Traasdahl, Marc Vetri, Chris Wink, Grit Young, Sherry Young, Steve Young, Sam Zell, and Kai Zhang.
Many friends and family members helped improve earlier drafts. For their invaluable comments, I thank Steve Arnold, Ben Malcolmson, Erica Dewan, Feroz Dewan, Joe Duckworth, Jordan Ellenberg, Ira Handler, Donald Kamentz, Annette Lee, Susan Lee, Dave Levin, Felicia Lewis, Alyssa Matteucci, David Meketon, Evan Nesterak, Rick Nichols, Rebecca Nyquist, Tanya Schlam, Robert Seyfarth, Naomi Shavin, Paul Solman, Danny Southwick, Sharon Parker, Dominic Randolph, Richard Shell, Paolo Terni, Paul Tough, Amy Wax, and Rich Wilson.