Episode 99: Angela Duckworth, Author of Grit and Founder and CEO of Character Lab

Daily Matters: The changing face of the legal industry

Angela Duckworth, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the Founder and CEO of Character Lab, a nonprofit whose mission is to advance the science and practice of character development. Angela is also going to be a Keynote Speaker at the 2020 Clio Cloud Conference, which starts virtually on October 13.

In this episode, Angela and Clio CEO Jack Newton engage in an impactful discussion about grit, burnout, and the traits and behaviors that correlate most strongly with personal success. Specifically, Angela and Jack discuss:

• Why “sampling” different careers is beneficial for long-term growth
• What Angela’s neuroscience background taught her about the ways the human brain works—and how we learn throughout life
• What “grit” means to Angela, why she started studying it, and why it matters
• How burnout enters the equation—especially for lawyers—and how to deal with it
• How people can learn to become more “gritty” in their own lives

Angela Duckworth is the Founder and CEO of Character Lab, a nonprofit whose mission is to advance scientific insights that help children thrive. She is also the Rosa Lee and Egbert Chang Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, faculty co-director of the Penn-Wharton Behavior Change For Good Initiative, and faculty co-director of Wharton People Analytics. A 2013 MacArthur Fellow, Angela has advised the World Bank, NBA and NFL teams, and Fortune 500 CEOs. Prior to her career in research, Angela founded a summer school for underserved children that was profiled as a Harvard Kennedy School case study and, in 2018, celebrated its 25th anniversary. She has also been a McKinsey management consultant and a math and science teacher in the public schools of New York City, San Francisco, and Philadelphia.

Angela completed her undergraduate degree in Advanced Studies Neurobiology at Harvard, graduating magna cum laude. With the support of a Marshall Scholarship, she completed an MSc with Distinction in Neuroscience from Oxford University. She completed her PhD in Psychology as a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. Angela’s TED talk is among the most-viewed of all time. Her first book, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, is a #1 New York Times best seller. She is also co-host, with Stephen Dubner, of the podcast No Stupid Questions.

You can follow Angela on Twitter at @angeladuckw