“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”-Winston Churchill
In this ever competitive world, academic performance is seen as the be all and end all of success in life. This is very much the case in Hong Kong where the intense pressure to excel is magnified by the fast pace of life in a very small city. Everybody in Hong Kong seemingly wants the same things and this has just added to new levels of competition which everyone can get swept up in and this includes the city’s youth.
Attaining good grades was and still is seen as the only way to transcend and eclipse your position in life; this may have been the case in the past and is still is though there is a growing case that human qualities such as ‘grit’ and ‘persistence’ are becoming crucial to gauging a person’s long term success.
Often, it is not the most academically inclined or ‘smartest’ who can thrive but it is the ones who are the most determined despite all roadblocks and obstacles in front of them. In most cases, the ones who are the most successful are the ones who have also ‘failed’ the most. People are a sum of their life experiences and this includes ‘failure’ and the ability to bounce back endlessly and learn harsh lessons from tough situations and set-backs can leave a person in good stead.
How can a person define ‘grit’ which can encompass many different areas? According to Duckworth, 2013; Shechtman, DeBarger, Dornsife, Rosier, & Yarnall, 2013, grit is seen as being persistent over a long period of time to accomplish long term goals and these researchers have gone on to highlight these defining features of what exactly ‘grit’ is:
- Goal-directedness - Knowing where to go and how to get there
- Motivation - Having a strong will to achieve identified goals
- Self-control - Avoiding distractions and focusing on the task at hand
- Positive mind-set (embracing challenge and viewing failure as a learning opportunity
Two examples of students overcoming all odds and situations whereby many would give up include the story of Liz Murray who went from homelessness and poverty in New York exacerbated by her loving parent’s drug addiction, to graduating from Harvard and meeting people like Bill Clinton and Oprah Winfrey. Her story is chronicled in her best-selling book, Breaking Night - www.amazon.com/Breaking-Night-Forgiveness-Survival-Homeless/dp/1401310591
Another story of grit and persistence is the story of Cedric Jennings who despite being born into one of the roughest and crime ridden neighbourhoods of Washington DC and who was bounced from home to home, overcame this all with his determined mind-set and graduated from Brown, another Ivy League university. Some people are steadfast and resolute in overcoming their perceived disadvantages and rising to the top. His story is documented in the best seller, A Hope Unseen www.amazon.com/Hope-Unseen-American-Odyssey-League/dp/0767901266/
Life is not a level playing field and individuals are the sum of their environment, background and community though if a student has the right attitude and mind-set then they will succeed regardless of their grades and their circumstances. In an increasingly world of mollycoddled and over-protected children with helicopter parents overseeing their every move, sometimes it is a good thing to occasionally let your child ‘fall’ flat on their faces in both a figurative and literal sense.
By Christopher Lau
Senior teacher for primary
