A Ted Talk video that popped up on my LinkedIn feed the other day talked about success. This is not an uncommon topic on said platform. Most days there is someone sharing their perspectives on current affairs and translating news into learnings about leadership, teamwork, resilience, trust or any one of those multitudes of topics covered in business books that fill airport shops. Sidenote, this is a bugbear of mine: the tenuous nature of LinkedIn posts, where wannabe business influencers translate news stories or real-world examples into generic non-specific learnings that populate the PowerPoint presentations of the corporate world. My favourites include the animal world demonstrating leadership (you must have seen the one with wolves), school children showcasing teamwork (usually working together to operate some toy machinery), and any sports team or athlete who does well and demonstrates the power of resilience and/or all the characteristics mentioned above.
Anyway, sorry about the interlude. The Ted Talk video had an academic presenter speaking about her research into the qualities of success among school children, university students and workers at various businesses worldwide. Curiously, these studies showed that one quality above all else contributed to success across different age groups and different areas of professional life. This quality was not IQ, EQ, social capabilities or even looks. According to the researcher, the one human quality that was consistently associated with success was grit. Those who have passion and perseverance are more likely to succeed than those without. If you can muster a growth mindset and see failure as transitory and not an end destination, you are on a track that is more likely destined for whatever success you seek.
I guess this video resonated with me now as I struggle through another period of literary agent querying – this time for my second novel. I went through the process with my first and, in the end, self-published with Matador books (an outcome that worked out really well for me). I decided to try again with #2 thinking that perhaps this second novel may be more accessible and marketable than the first. How it plays out remains to be seen. And in all honesty, I’m not even sure whether traditional publishing is still the best route for all authors in this day and age. But nonetheless, I am going through the querying process again, and the most problematic part of the process is the way it opens an author up to judgement. Not necessarily in terms of feedback (over fifteen beta readers have already read my second novel) but in terms of whether it’s deemed worthy enough to receive the traditional publisher’s seal of approval. If a manuscript is not picked up by an agent or a publisher, does that ultimately mean it’s not good enough or not something people would want to read? Well, maybe in some instances, but certainly not always – as demonstrated by the likes of Hugh Howey and a slew of other authors. The actual response also probably comes down to marketability and the current commercial literature landscape. But the point is that, as an author, going through this process can be hard. It takes time to prepare the submission package, and I suspect the majority of unsuccessful querying emails are never replied to. If you’re a non-celebrity and new on the scene, the odds are against you when trying to find an agent and a publisher. It’s easy to feel this is a judgement, not only on what you’ve written but also, on your capabilities as a writer.
This is where the grit comes in.
If you do fail this time, maybe success – in whatever shape it comes – arrives next time or the time after that. So long as you stick at it. Keeping going in the face of adversity, whatever it takes, is the only way forward. Opening yourself up to judgement, criticism and failure is hard for a lot of people. Carrying on afterwards is harder. Perseverance and focusing on the long-term goal is what one must keep doing. Take the feedback and learn from things not working out in the short term. In the long-term, who knows, if you keep at it, you may still achieve your goals.
Take the hardy salmon. To reproduce, it must make its way from the sea upstream to the freshwater spawning site, leaping up waterfalls and navigating strong currents and obstacles. Now that is true grit. Of course, it dies after spawning. But let’s just focus on the positives for now, shall we?
