Self-Control and Grit: Related but Separable Determinants of Success

Grit: working while hungover. Self control: not drinking in the first place.

For those interested, there is an episode or more of Freakonomics podcasts about this: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/grit/

Additionally, Angela Duckworth (an author) co-hosts with Freakonomics host Stephen Dubner another podcast called "No Stupid Questions" (https://freakonomics.com/nsq/)

There's a bit of controversy over this, not with the idea or the evidence for it, but that the concepts and evidence are anything new. It's basically repackaging ideas that have been discussed and studied repeatedly in the cognitive and personality literatures. Maybe fine in terms of lay/popular translation but a good example of how academic credit can get distorted.

I'll give you an even better one: locus of control

People with internal locus of control are 5x more likely to use failures as stepping sones toward improvement. I know because we did the research. We use this, among other behavioural traits, to recruit talent.

"Other than talent and opportunity..."

Seems like opportunity is the big one. You get promoted, or given other opportunities, because the person in power wants to give them to you. These other attributes can play a role in that, but I think we all know people who were not talented, lack grit, and lack self control who were promoted anyways.