Is your career path a ladder or a labyrinth? Understand the differences between being on your way up a career ladder or navigating in an unpredictable job maze. Some prefer ladders, others labyrinths. And many don’t know which way their career path will be headed. Whether your career journey is up a ladder or through a maze, it will require grit. Grit is an eye-opener for many, so let us begin with grit, one of my favorite terms.
Why grit is at least as important for your career as talent and luck
When teaching seventh grade math in New York’s public schools, Angela Duckworth noticed that her best students were not necessarily her smartest students. After a few years she left her school classroom to better understand why some students performed better than others even though they weren’t the brightest students. Today Angela Duckworth is a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Grit is key. That is Duckworth’s conclusion. One way to define grit is to consider what is not grit. Grit is not talent. It is not luck. It is not about wanting something right now. What is grit then? Grit is a com44
bination of persistence and passion for long-term goals. Let’s put it into a semi-mathematical formula: Skills & Effort + Engagement & passion = RESULTS Results being e.g. getting the job you want, or having the career of your dreams So, grit is about having a goal or an ultimate concern. This goal or purpose will help organize and give a direction to what you do. So, even when you fall down a couple of steps, meet bumps along the way or even mess up, and the going gets tough or slower than first anticipated, you still keep on moving forward. You hold on to your goal. Of course, talent and luck matter. But don’t underestimate persistence and passion, determination and enthusiasm. According to Angela Duckworth, grit matters just as much as talent and luck, if not more.
The traditional ladder or the labyrinth alternative
When it comes to choosing your career path, some prefer ladders, others labyrinths. And many don’t know in which direction their career path will head. After a long career many will look back and think, this wasn’t at all how I had expected my career to be after completing my engineering degree. Maybe he or she moved up, up and up to the top of a career ladder? Or maybe this engineer took a labyrinthine path via teaching at a gymnasium, working as a civil servant in a ministry and taking a job in the private industry. Regardless of whether you are a manager or a professor, a student or a job seeker, consider your career approach. Are you choosing the ladder route or the labyrinth? Remember, grit is required when you meet obstacles, both if you are moving up the ladder or through the labyrinth.
