Ever wondered how Elon Musk started building rocket ships or how 16 year old Laura Dekker sailed her way around the world in 518 days solo? How Michael Jordan become one of the World’s best basketball players or how Sara Blakely become the youngest female billionaire in the world with her Spanx business?

Were these individuals born smarter, stronger, more motivated?

I don’t think so!

If you haven’t heard about Grit then please do yourself a favour and get yourself a copy of Angela Duckworth’s incredibly insightful book called.. you guessed it.. Grit! Don’t have time to read you say? Angela also delivered a great 6 minute TED Talk which is well worth watching.

Grit argues that it is not about how smart you are, but rather how resilience, initiative, and having guts gives you a distinct advantage over others. At HSC CoWorks we are such believers of this that it is one of our Key Behaviours. We work with our students to develop their Grit and apply this skill to the HSC and ultimately life after. Not everyone is born with Grit, but everyone can develop it.

So is that student who is doing well at school that much smarter than you? Or is it that they have done that many more practice essays, pushed their comfort zone to improve results, asked the questions and stayed curious about what it is they are learning, and ultimately stayed ‘gritty’ and persevered to the end?