Using Grit to Achieve Greatness

We’ve been sold the wrong roadmap to success—a roadmap that says greatness belongs to the naturally gifted, the quick thinkers, the talented ones who just “have it.” Whether it's careers, business, marketing, or life, that premise doesn’t hold up. If you take a closer look at those who achieve success, you’ll find that it takes something more than talent—it takes commitment. It takes grit. And at the end of the day, effort and grit will outpace talent. Every time.

What is Grit? Tell me if you think you know...

So what exactly is grit? And how does it relate to talent? In her book Grit, Angela Duckworth defines grit as a combination of sustained passion and perseverance toward long-term goals. It’s the ability to stick with something over time—working hard even when results aren’t immediate, staying focused when it’s no longer exciting, and not giving up despite setbacks.

Think of Olympic athletes training day after day, early mornings and late nights, for years on end. Repeating the same movements over and over with little visible change. They understand that achieving greatness—that extra tenth of a second that wins gold—comes from a commitment to small, iterative improvements over time.

Next, let’s define talent. Talent is your natural ability—how quickly you can improve at something. But talent alone doesn’t produce results; it has to be developed. Talent is developed into a skill when effort is applied over time.

Two people with different levels of natural talent can reach the same level of skill depending on how much effort they invest. This is where many talented people stop. They stop because it was easy to get there, and they’re already better than most.

Effort is what makes skill productive, and while talent might give someone a head start, grit is what wins the race.

Legendary running back Jim Brown was once quoted as saying "great players make great plays". What did he mean by that? He meant that great players don’t coast once they’ve done enough to win. Jim Brown didn’t play to “do just enough.” He led the league in rushing 8 out of 9 seasons and retired at the top of nearly every major rushing category at the time. He was known for imposing his will on games, both physically and mentally. Greatness isn’t about meeting the standard—it’s about raising it, especially when it matters most.

In order to become great it requires something more... it requires dedication towards a higher goal. Effort is what makes skill productive, and while talent might give someone a head start, grit is what wins the race.

Where Grit Begins: Finding Your telos

Before grit can work, it needs something to attach to. The Greeks called it telos—your ultimate aim. The thing that gives your effort direction and meaning. According to Aristotle, humans have a telos—something we are meant to fulfill. This telos is rooted in our uniquely human capacity for rational thought. But it’s not just about thinking rationally—it’s about directing that thought toward a meaningful end.

Without telos, you drift. With it, even average effort begins to compound. You don’t need perfect clarity, but you do need a target. This is how you learn to prioritize—when to apply grit and when to pivot. Each move, each decision can be measured against your telos to ensure you’re still moving in the right direction.

Think in layers—like a Gritness Tree:

• Top level: Your telos (your ultimate aim)

• Mid level: The paths that move you toward it

• Daily level: The actions that reinforce those paths

A major reason people don't follow their passion, is because they haven't found their passion. Finding an interest requires curiosity and self-awareness.  Why did I enjoy that so much?  What was it about that thing that connected with me? It requires awareness, self-reflection and curiosity at an organic pace... rush a beginner and you will bludgeon their blooming interests. It's not easy to discover your telos, and it may even evolve over time, but getting started now will help you guide your grit to achieve your greatness.

The Truth About Greatness

It’s natural to feel overwhelmed when you look to the top of the mountain. What you are aiming for is so far away. But know that greatness is doable, it is many many individual feats and each of them are doable.  Break it down. Focus on one piece at a time. Improve small things repeatedly and master the fundamentals.

From the outside, it looks like talent. From the inside, it’s often boring, repetitive, and slow. That’s why most people never get there—not because they can’t, but because they won’t stay with it long enough.

This is where separation happens.

Most people lose interest when progress slows or quit when things feel repetitive. But that’s exactly when effort begins to compound. If you can stay focused when it’s no longer exciting… if you can keep improving when results aren’t immediate… you will pass people who may have started with more talent but didn’t stay long enough to build it into greatness.

When to Get Gritty—and When Not To

One of the biggest challenges is knowing when to apply grit and when to pivot—and it comes down to understanding your telos. Life is unpredictable. It doesn’t always follow your plan. So you have to know when to dig in—and when to adjust.

As you move through the Gritness Tree, you’ll have many daily tasks supporting your goal. For example, you might have a standing Monday meeting at 9 a.m. to review marketing metrics. But one week, you have a conflict. Does grit mean forcing your way into that meeting no matter what? No.

That meeting sits low on the tree. You can move it, delegate it, or adjust. There are multiple ways to stay on track without rigidly forcing that one action.

Now consider a bigger example. Kate shaped her high school experience around a path to medical school. She received offers from several colleges—including her dream school. It was a beautiful campus, amazing academics, and 10 hours from home. But, in her first year there she realized that friends and family were integral to her happiness and her success. She's at the college of her dreams and she is miserable.

She recognized that her telos wasn’t about attending that specific college—it was to help people through medicine. Showing grit wasn't about staying at that college. The real grittiness was in recognizing the disconnect, and changing colleges. Moving to a college that allowed her to be with friends and family gave her what she needed to stay on track towards her Telos.

The Bottom Line

Greatness isn’t reserved for the gifted—it’s built by the committed. When you pair effort with direction, anchoring grit to a clear telos, you raise the bar from common to exceptional. The question isn’t whether you have enough talent. It’s whether you’re willing to stay with it long enough, push when it’s hard, pivot when it’s wise, and keep aiming at something that actually matters.

Because in the end, greatness isn’t found—it’s forged.

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Reference: Much of the thinking in this article is inspired by Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth. For a deeper dive into how grit can be developed and applied, it’s well worth the read.