Angela Duckworth is the Rosa Lee and Egbert Chang Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and co-director of the Penn-Wharton Behaviour Change for Good Initiative. She co-hosts the podcast No Stupid Questions.
As a 2013 MacArthur Fellow, Angela has advised the World Bank, NBA and NFL teams, and Fortune 500 CEOs. Before her research career, she founded a summer school for underserved children, which was featured as a Harvard Kennedy School case study and celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2018. She has also worked as a McKinsey management consultant and taught maths and science in New York City, San Francisco, and Philadelphia public schools. Angela co-founded Character Lab, a nonprofit focused on applying scientific insights to help children succeed.
Angela earned her undergraduate degree in Advanced Studies Neurobiology at Harvard, graduating magna cum laude. With a Marshall Scholarship, she completed an MSc with Distinction in Neuroscience at Oxford University. She obtained her PhD in Psychology as a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania.
Her TED talk is among the most viewed ever, and her book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance reached #1 on the New York Times best-seller list.
In her insightful talk, Angela Duckworth explores the concept of grit—the passion and perseverance needed to achieve long-term goals. Drawing on her research with diverse groups, including West Point cadets and National Spelling Bee competitors, she highlights how grit predicts success in high-pressure situations. Angela emphasises that grit can be developed by anyone, regardless of their circumstances. Attendees will learn how to cultivate grit to enhance their own performance and achievement.
In this session, Angela Duckworth highlights the essential components of grit—courage, conscientiousness, perseverance, resilience, and passion—demonstrated through recent acts of heroism. As we navigate a new era of work, she explores how to leverage the skills that helped us overcome unprecedented challenges. Attendees will learn to recognise their inner strength, nurture their true potential, and prepare to thrive, not just survive, in the face of future uncertainties.
