The importance of intellectual talent to achievement in all professional domains is well established, but less is known about other individual differences that predict success. The authors tested the importance of 1 noncognitive trait: grit. Defined as perseverance and passion for long-term goals, grit accounted for an average of 4% of the variance in success outcomes, including educational attainment among 2 samples of adults (N=1,545 and N=690), grade point average among Ivy League undergraduates (N=138), retention in 2 classes of United States Military Academy, West Point, cadets (N=1,218 and N=1,308), and ranking in the National Spelling Bee (N=175). Grit did not relate positively to IQ but was highly correlated with Big Five Conscientiousness. Grit nonetheless demonstrated incremental predictive validity of success measures over and beyond IQ and conscientiousness. Collectively, these findings suggest that the achievement of difficult goals entails not only talent but also the sustained and focused application of talent over time.

https://psycnet.apa.org/journals/psp/92/6/1087.pdf

Grit: Perseverance and Passion for Long-Term Goals

https://www.psychologytoday.com/files/attachments/3382/kashdan-rottenberg-2010-psychological-flexibility-cpr.pdf

Psychological flexibility as a fundamental aspect of health.

Entrepreneurial passion plays an important role in entrepreneurship, but theoretical understanding of what it is and what it does is lacking. We build on fragmented and disparate extant work to conceptualize the nature of entrepreneurial passion associated with salient entrepreneurial role identities. We also theorize the mechanisms of the experience of entrepreneurial passion that provide coherence to goal-directed cognitions and behaviors during the pursuit of entrepreneurial effectiveness.

/pdf/the-nature-and-experience-of-entrepreneurial-passion-3qgvttpiz4.pdf

The nature and experience of entrepreneurial passion

We (Marsh & Craven, 1997) have claimed that academic self-concept and achievement are mutually reinforcing, each leading to gains in the other. Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, and Vohs (2003) have c...

Reciprocal Effects of Self-Concept and Performance From a Multidimensional Perspective: Beyond Seductive Pleasure and Unidimensional Perspectives:

We investigated the extent to which venture capitalists' (VCs') perceptions of “entrepreneurial passion” influence the VCs' investment decisions. We defined entrepreneurial passion as an entreprene...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/40390282.pdf

Entrepreneur Passion And Preparedness In Business Plan Presentations: A Persuasion Analysis Of Venture Capitalists' Funding Decisions

Passion is defined as a strong inclination toward an activity that people like, that they find important, and in which they invest time and energy Two types of passion are proposed: obsessive and harmonious Obsessive passion (OP) refers to a controlled internalization of an activity in one's identity that creates an internal pressure to engage in the activity that the person likes Harmonious passion (HP) refers to an autonomous internalization that leads individuals to choose to engage in the activity that they like HP promotes healthy adaptation whereas OP thwarts it by causing negative affect and rigid persistence Results from four studies involving more than 900 participants from different populations supported the proposed conceptualization

/pdf/les-passions-de-l-ame-on-obsessive-and-harmonious-passion-3h0ubhs5nb.pdf

Josée Marsolais

Papers

Les passions de l'ame: on obsessive and harmonious passion.