Talent vs. Hard Work
In skill, there are these two variables that Duckworth observes, talent and effort, and although statistically, her studies found that most people said that hard work and continual effort were what made someone successful, any of her studies showed that people secretly believe that they needed more talent from nature before they could be successful. She spends much of this book arguing scientifically about effort. Not only is hard work stronger than talent, it exponentially increases skill, so it doesn't matter whatsoever where someone's talent is, if what matters in the end is skill, or ability—only their effort matters, how much effort they were willing to work.
Vision attained by strategic goal-setting
Duckworth spends the last portion of the book discussing goal setting. Some people set goals, and then when they fail, they beat themselves up, which makes them less likely to try in the future. She says that instead of that, use the emotional passion to construct an open-ended vision for what life could be like, and then try breaking that bigger goal down into little small repeatable goals. She says people should figure out what tactical strategies could be repeated on a daily, habitual basis for the advancement of one's dreams.
Motivation and honesty
To be honest with one's self is to admit what motivations are driving them. This is a component of Duckworth's opinion of success, because without motivation, typically people will fail, because passion alone is not enough to meet a goal; only daily discipline can be relied upon for that, so people are left in a dilemma—they have to be honest with themselves about what they want, before they can succeed in getting it, but after that, they can get it because they will be able to form habits that actually work.
