Is Grit the Key to a Meaningful Life and Career? We Think So.

Greetings from Washington, D.C. This is high school graduation season — and — we are joyful that, last weekend, our daughter transitioned to rising college freshman status. It is a happy time, indeed.

Lately, we are thinking a lot about grit. No, not the rough stuff that makes sand paper sand paper, but rather the courage shown by people who overcome daunting obstacles — and great odds — to achieve success in a meaningful life and career.

We think about our daughter’s fellow grad who became a member of the National Honor Society and gained entrance to Virginia Tech while his immigrant parents scrimped and saved for his freshman year’s tuition and board — his first year on campus is fully pre-paid. We learned from our daughter’s principal that her graduating class’ cohort — Gen Z or Plurals — demonstrates more grit than previous generations that he’s tended.

We also think about the Millennial mom in our residential community; she is an ambitious corporate marketing director who rises before 5:30 on Monday mornings; feeds, dresses and gets her two little ones off to daycare; works a full day tending to a $20 million consumer marketing portfolio and five direct reports before returning nine hours later to the daycare facility to retrieve her kids; get them safely home; prepare a home-cooked…