Predicting success isn’t always easy, but it surely would be great to know if a person you are dating has the characteristics that would allow them to succeed. Scientists point out to factors that help people be successful in life.

Predicting success in life

According to Angela Duckworth, a psychologist from the University of Pennsylvania (USA), putting passion and perseverance toward important long-term personal goals is often seen as the hallmark factor for success in life.

But a recent study involving over 11 thousand students of the Military Academy showed that things may not be that straightforward. Both cognitive and non-cognitive factors have been found to contribute to achievements in life.

Duckworth started with considering the factor of quitting to early. While sometimes it may be wise to stop trying, in general this is a strong factor of inability to compete the task successfully.

In case of military training, cadets had to undergo a 6-week initiation program after 2-year studies. 3 out of 100 people would usually quit at this stage. This was surprising given the fact the students have already invested two years in their education. While studying this group, Duckworth concluded that grit was essential to success.

For this purpose, a special grit scale was created, assigning a score to each participant. Academic results were also considered along with data of physical fitness tests and whether or not the 6-week initiation training was passed successfully by the cadet.

Grit was the most strongest predictor of whether the student would complete the initiation course. Academic grades were the highest among students with strong cognitive abilities. But to predict who will graduate and who will quit, the combination of physical strength and grit was the most reliable.

No magic factor reliably predicts success, but working on all of them is important

As such, grit (sticking with things when they are hard) wasn’t the single important thing to determine success. It’s important, but it doesn’t predict reliably each aspect of success.

At the moment, employers and recruiters often view cognitive abilities as the most important. There are plenty of tests that provide reliable results in measuring cognitive abilities. But non-cognitive abilities aren’t always examined with the view to find the best candidate.

At the end, as the researcher points out, “If you want to lead a happy, healthy, helpful life, you want to cultivate many aspects of your character, like honesty, kindness, generosity, curiosity.”

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