It was the end of our summer time together. My sister and I had a van FULL of kids, hers, mine and our brothers’, parked in my grandmother’s driveway.Over the years it had gotten progressively harder for me to say goodbye to my grandmother. Each year I wondered if this would be the last time I’d see her.

Why does grit matter? According to Angela’s extensive research, grit appears to be a strong predictor of life-long success and happiness -- perhaps more so than innate talent or IQ.  “Our potential is one thing,” she writes. “What we do with it is quite another.” As a parent, I appreciate this definition because it breaks down the ‘talent myth’ that seems to dominate our popular understanding of why people are able to accomplish their goals.