The importance of grit, rules, and discipline

Found via Abnormal Returns. The Warren Buffett quote that comes to mind: "We don't have to be smarter than the rest. We have to be more disciplined than the rest."

I know a girl who, despite a flimsy record of personal achievement, has made a living out of being optimistic. People are so desperate to hear feel-good messages they pay her money to be told, “You’re special and you can do it!” Of course, this girl isn’t alone. The entire self improvement industry and what appears to be half of my Facebook newsfeed consist of similar proclamations of “follow your dreams!”

More than just annoying, these messages are flat out wrong and in most cases counterproductive. They teach people to be impulsive and focus solely on the desired outcome while ignoring the path to get there. In study after study, it’s been shown that discipline and impulse control are the primary traits of successful people and the best predictor of future achievement. In contrast, unwarranted, overinflated self esteem is often a sign of future failure. Compared to discipline, even legitimate measures of intelligence have very little bearing as predictors of success.