Tyler Mills
Professor Cathy McCarron
How to succeed in Business
27/9/15
Summary
In the article “The Five Characteristics of Grit—How Many Do You Have?” (2013) by Maragret M. Perlis, published by Forbes Online, Perlis the author sheds light on the definitions of grit. Perlis believes Angela Duckworth’s ( receiver of the genius grant to study grit) definition of grit is too specific and needs more room for interpretation. The first characteristic described,” courage”, is the concept of not being afraid to fail. As long as one puts forth their best effort, they're taking a step in the right direction. She then dives into” conscientiousness”, separating the two main types, achievement oriented and dependable. The author believes achievement oriented is the better of the two, because it's better to strive for gold then just practice. Perlis then elaborates the importance of” long term goals” and the fact that to become a contender at something, one must spend around 10,00 hours of practice to achieve success. However, she goes on to warn that ones practice must have a purpose or else they are wasting their own time. The article now moves onto” Resilience”, and one’s ability to show adversity in difficult situations, to get knocked down and stand right back up. Finally, Perlis stresses the importance of “excellence vs perfection”. She explains how perfection can be like chasing a hallucination, and how several disorders are negative conditions. The article concludes with Perlis asking the reader for their feedback and leaving space for other characteristics.

Response
In the article The Five Characterstics of Grit- How Many do you have?(2013) published on Forbes Online by Maragret M Perlis, the author discusses the positives and negatives of the original points of GRIT. By reading Perlis's article, freshman will become motivated to be ambitious to work hard and stay focused through all four years of college. One may learn the courage to try a whole new experience, the ability to see the long term goals of college, and the sense of resilience, that when things do become difficult you can have the strength to get back up.
My college experience got off to a very rocky start and I almost never recovered. Perhaps if I had read this article I would have been able to start off with the courage I needed. College is a new sometimes frightening experience which is understandable for student who weeks ago had to ask to use the bathroom. But courage is necessary due to the fact that it’s the first step in removing am individual from their comfort zone. Everything seems scary but once they put themselves out there and remain confident things will slowly become better and better every day. Perlis states " Courage helps fuel grit; the two are symbiotic, feeding into and off of each other…and you need to manage each and how they are functioning together”(Page 1).
In this day and age, everyone wants everything immediately, no waiting, just as fast as possible. But if freshman try to get through college that way they will crash and burn. Which is why it is very important that they look to the future and set long term goals. Freshman won't be able to wait till the last minute to do their homework and nobody is making them do anything. They need to plan ahead, which is something Perlis fails to mention when she covers long term goals. She discusses how practice makes perfect and your practice should be meaningful, but never really goes into detail about how planning is an easy way to complete long terms goals. Students need to grab a calendar and fill out their core activities that they cannot miss (class or work), then simply map out time for homework, studying, reading, even gym time. Planning ahead will start them in the right path to completing their new long term goals.

My experience at Framingham State did not go as planned. To sum it up I slacked off and dug myself a hole I couldn’t get out of. Now I could have forgone school and started working but instead, I showed resilience. Andrew Stolli defines resilience as"“the ability of people, communities, and systems to maintain their core purpose and integrity among unforeseen shocks and surprises”(Page 3). I signed up for classes at Middlesex and got back on my feet to try again. Because nobody is guaranteed to succeed at first. It's difficult but new students will have to make their best effort to pick themselves up.
College freshman will be able to succeed if they follows these few tips on the five Characterstics of GRIT.