Book Review – “Grit – The Power of Passion and Perseverance” by Angela Duckworth

Title: Grit – The Power of Passion and Perseverance

Author: Angela Duckworth

First Published: 2016

Number of Pages: 352

Price: Paperback – Rs. 400/ Kindle – Rs. 274.86 (Amazon.in)

My rating: 5 out of 5

Remember the fable about the hare and the tortoise, and how the lazy hare lost the race to the slow but persevering tortoise? Well, they weren’t kidding.

Dr. Angela Duckworth starts this book with the premise that socially and culturally, we attribute a lot of success to talent whereas a larger proportion of that credit should go to perseverance. She goes on to show how various longitudinal research studies show that grit and constantly striving to become better is a far greater contributor to success than raw talent. Examples of this range from success stories at National Spelling Bee to military schools and from sportsmen to regular office goers.

Sure, everyone who reads this is bound to feel motivated. But Dr. Duckworth cautions us that the route to such success is mostly daunting and might appear to be boring and full of struggle. In a sense, she is saying that although not fashionable, good old hard work trounces talent which hasn’t worked hard enough.

The book tells us practical ways in which grit can be cultivated. And this has big implications not only for leaders at multi-million dollar companies and sports teams, but also for parents trying to get their kids to succeed at school. She outlines how we should approach the “10,000 hour” rule, not only quantitatively but also qualitatively.

I must add that I couldn’t help but think of marathon training. Almost all the skills and attributes that the author spoke of are present in people who train for endurance sports, even at the amateur level. And I’m speaking not only about traits like not giving up when one is mentally and physically exhausted but also a sense of camaraderie towards your fellow runner by motivating them to push harder and putting another step forward.

In summary, this is a book which would give a lot of people hope in the belief that with hard work and perseverance, they *can* change their life story.

Read more about “Grit” on Goodreads. Buy the book here.

(Disclosure: If you buy the book by clicking on any of the Amazon links above, you will NOT get charged extra. However, I will get a small commission, 100% of which will go to charity.)

Open by Andre Agassi

Title: Open – An Autobiography

Author: Andre Agassi

Number of Pages: 400

Price: Rs. 235 (Amazon.in/Flipkart)

I hadn’t read an autobiography in a while, let alone a sports one. What tipped me towards reading this particular book was that it was highly recommended by a couple of friends who are avid sports fans themselves. In fact, one of them had insisted that she listed this book as brilliant.

I expected the book to be a simple narration of an athlete’s journey: his trials and tribulations, snippets from his personal life, the various battles that he had been part of on the tennis court. What I got, however, was an untarnished glimpse into the life and the roller-coaster mind of a flawed genius.

There is no doubt about the fact that Agassi is one of the greatest tennis players of his age. He will forever be remembered as one of the titans. He will also be remembered as somebody who was flamboyant and perhaps not mentally strong enough to capitalise on his skills in the initial years of his career.

The book smashes all such ideas. And then some more.

Agassi shocks us by telling us how his father trained him since the age when he could barely hold a racket. Agassi hated the sport. As he grew up, he was, like any other kid, a rebel. What made things different for him was the focus on his life and his career. And that the rebellious kid’s every antic was being noticed and commented upon.

No doubt he worked extremely hard was made to work extremely hard on his game. But he was also clearly gifted. Yet, he continuously saw ups and downs in his career graph, most of which can be attributed to the demons in his head.

Agassi speaks honestly about his married life with Brooke Shields and how, even though it looked picture perfect, there were ominous signs right from the start. His subsequent wooing of Steffi Graf, however, makes for a delightful read and you cannot be any more pleased for a man to have finally found happiness after all that he has been through in his personal life.

There are also some great stories of friends, trainers and coaches who have had a significant impact on Agassi’s life. Each one of these injected a dose of positive thinking in his life when he needed them the most. Those chapters are very good motivational reads.

And then of course, there is Pete. “As always, Pete.” The one awkward rivalry-friendship that endures through the length of the book is that of Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras. Agassi admits as much. Sampras was definitely the more crowned champion, and perhaps with good reason. Agassi mentions how not bothered Sampras could be with the sport when he was off the court: how he could “switch off”. You cannot but admire the way Agassi speaks of his friend and arch-rival.

I have always loved tennis as a sport and will forever remain a Federer fan (GO FED!). But this book has made me look with new respect at Agassi and at what is perhaps the loneliest sport out there, as he mentions in the book.

Bring on the Sampras autobiography, I say!

My rating: 4 out of 5.

Image courtesy: http://www.goodreads.com

Read more about Open on Goodreads. Get it on Amazon.in, Flipkart & on your Kindle.

(Disclosure: If you buy the book by clicking on any of the Amazon links above, you will NOT get charged extra. However, I will get a small commission, 100% of which will go to charity.)