Last Uncertainty Wednesday I wrote that “Stuff can and will go wrong, with varying degrees of bad consequences.” One direct corollary of this is that we will all face setbacks in our life. A key question then is what happens next. Do you give up? Or do you learn, persist and try a new approach? That latter requires grit. Grit is a character trait that turns out to be a strong predictor of long term success. In her book “Grit,” Angela Duckworth recounts that tests of grit among Westpoint Academy students were more predictive of their longterm performance than any other test. The book is full of wonderful stories of people who overcame great obstacles to succeed in their respective fields. A great example is Toby Cosgrove, who was initially discouraged by professors from pursuing surgery only to eventually become one of the most accomplished heart surgeons and then the president of the Cleveland Clinic.

If you have not yet read “Grit,” I highly recommend it. The book covers a lot of territory and comes full of terrific advice for raising children to have grit (with apologies to our own children: I wish I had had this book when you were little!), leading teams with grit and developing grit in yourself. One crucial piece of advice relates to goal setting. In order to have more grit, Angela suggests having a hierarchy of goals, in which a long term Northstar goal is supported by intermediate goals which in turn are supported by short term goals. The advantage of such an approach in a world full of uncertainty is powerful. When you fail to achieve one of your short term goals, you can immediately remind yourself of the intermediate goals and the longterm Northstar goal. That makes it much more likely that you will learn and try again and/or try a different way of accomplishing the near term goal rather than giving up.

Having a Northstar goal amounts to having a purpose in life. Something you are looking to accomplish over decades, not days or months. When you have that, you can put up with a lot of setbacks. Finding a purpose is anything but easy. It may take a long time to find one and you may take many detours along the way. It is hard to give ourselves that freedom, especially when we live in a world that glorifies speed to success.

I remember clearly when prior to my undergraduate graduation the economics department at Harvard brought together a bunch of students. Larry Summers, then the head of the department, asked each of us what we were planning to do next. When it was my turn, I answered that I was going to work for a couple of years before deciding on graduate school. Summers said “That’s a terrible idea.” And pointing at another student “Megan (*) will be well on her way to being an economics professor by the time you start.” (*) I don’t recall the name of the student but do remember she was female (I sometimes wonder who she was and what happened to her).

This moment has stuck with me as a clear example of focusing on a short term goal and putting speed above purpose. I am glad I didn’t change my mind then and immediately pursue graduate school. I didn’t have a purpose and therefore it wasn’t clear to me what I should study. I doubt I would have put up well with the challenges of graduate school not knowing how it could support a longer term goal.