Angela Duckworth And The Theory Of Courage
Is talent innate or is it created? That is one of the questions that American author Angela Duckworth asks in her theory of courage. She argues that personal development, through passion and perseverance, helps people achieve their goals.
Duckworth shared his ideas and research in his book; Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. Reviewers from newspapers and magazines were enthusiastic about Duckworth’s book and her ideas, which have become popular all over the world.
The origin of the theory of “courage” by Angela Duckworth
In the summer of 2004, Angela Duckworth conducted a study with more than 1,000 young cadets from the United States Military Academy (USMA), also known as West Point. These young cadets were in their first year, which they call “beast barracks”. This is because of how physically and academically challenging it is.
During the 7 weeks of training, the cadets trained for 17 hours without a break. The physically demanding tests help the school retain the best candidates as they lose hundreds after the first training session. In this context, Duckworth was interested in the qualities of the cadets, which determined their success (or lack thereof) during these tests.
To do this, Duckworth designed a test that measured leadership, physical performance, perseverance, and the ability to achieve long-term goals. The combination of these characteristics is what Duckworth calls “courage.”
The results she came up with enabled her to make extremely accurate predictions. She used them, sooner or later, as a reference in her future work.
The principles of Angela Duckworth’s theory
Duckworh does not believe that education, intelligence, family or finances are the factors that determine success. While all of these things have an impact on your personal and professional life path, Duckworth believes that what really matters is your character.
The New York Times summed up her concept with an equation: “Talent + effort = skill. Skill + effort = achievement ”.
One of the principles in the theory of courage is that “effort counts twice”. Therefore, persistence is the crucial factor for success. This means that everyone, regardless of their situation, can learn to develop any kind of quality as long as they try hard enough.
Angela Duckworth believes that courage is the best indicator of success, even more so than IQ. This means that this theory argues that talent is created, not born. According to the author, if the opposite were true, everyone would just give up when things got tough. Therefore, any person who is resilient and hopeful can succeed.
On the other hand, Juan Carlos Cubeiro, an expert in leadership development, believes that there are four crucial ingredients to cultivating towards: Interest, practice, purpose and hope.
Is it legitimate?
Unfortunately, Duckworth’s theory is reminiscent of other contemporary theories, such as the theory of the culture of effort. Therefore, people have questioned the validity or effectiveness of her ideas. This is especially the case when it comes to setting these principles in students.
Not only this, but some people also dismissed her theory as and racist because she only studied privileged groups with students from the schools, Ivy League and West Point.
Therefore, her attractive theory can only be applied to those who are already in a privileged situation. It goes against any foundation of Duckworth’s theory that everyone can be successful if they try hard enough.
