Angela Duckworth, in her best-selling book, “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance,” celebrates a man whom she calls a “grit paragon”: Pete Carroll, the coach of the Seattle Seahawks, who led the team to a Super Bowl victory in 2014. It seems that Carroll had seen Duckworth’s ted talk nine months earlier and got in touch, eager to reassure her that building grit was exactly what the Seahawks culture was all about. Two years later, Duckworth visited the Seahawks training camp. She lectured to the team’s players and coaching staff. The subject was . . . grit. Duckworth was impressed by the Seahawks, and she quotes sentiments that are characteristic of the Carroll ethos: “Compete in everything you do. You’re a Seahawk 24-7. Finish strong. Positive self-talk. Team first.” Since the team trains ferociously all the time—going all out, for instance, in bone-crunching intra-squad practice sessions—this conversation may not have been entirely necessary.
[For more of this story, written by David Denby, go to http://www.newyorker.com/cultu...k/the-limits-of-grit]
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