The grit gospel
The Wednesday Unveiled - Grit is sabotaging your career
You've been sold a lie. A massive, steaming pile of nonsense wrapped up in a shiny bow called "grit."
Having walked out of university where the rules were clear, you had syllabi and rubrics that told you exactly what to do to get that shiny piece of paper. Now you're in the workplace, and the "rubric for success" is some vague, unwritten mess that nobody bothers to explain properly. Instead of giving you clarity or support, they slap a copy of Angela Duckworth's book about grit in your hand and tell you to get on with it. Persevere and have passion for long-term goals, they say.
But here's the bit they didn't show you: when they tell you, the intern, the grad, the individual contributor to show grit, they often mean "put your head down and shut up." It's a convenient narrative that transforms exploitation into character development.
The grit scam: corporate hazing disguised as wisdom
If you're stuck doing thankless, soul-crushing busywork, it's not because the system is broken or the task is pointless. Oh no, it's because you just don't have enough grit. Project has no clear direction? Grit up! Workload is insane? Grit up! Manager is useless or never there? Double grit!
You're at the bottom of the food chain, getting the tasks nobody else wants, the ambiguous projects, the stuff that's critical but mind-numbingly dull. By framing enduring all this as building "grit," they don't have to bother making the work engaging, providing clear direction, or actually investing in proper training and support. They just need you to be compliant, cheap, and easy to manage. The "grit gospel" makes you absorb the shocks of a poorly designed system without complaining. It’s plain bad management and leadership.
The advice? Most of it comes from people who never had to follow it themselves. The executives preaching grit climbed the ladder during economic booms, when companies were desperate for talent. They job-hopped every eighteen months, demanded raises, and quit bad situations without thinking twice. Now they're telling you to "stick it out" in roles that offer nothing but experience in suffering.
Think about it. Your boss who keeps telling you about the importance of persistence probably has four different companies on their CV from their twenties. But you? You should definitely grind it out in this understaffed department with broken processes because it’s "character building."
What blind grit culture actually produces
Burnout among young professionals exists. These aren't seasoned veterans; these are people in their early twenties already hitting walls. The legal sector, for instance, known for its demanding culture, is finding the old "grit your teeth and work hard" mentality unsustainable for attracting and retaining generation z talent who want holistic support, mental wellbeing prioritized, flexible arrangements, and meaningful work. Telling them to just "grit up" in a broken or toxic environment is like telling someone with a broken leg to walk it off.
We're basing career advice on questionable research and applying it in contexts where it was never tested. The original research on grit was often in academic or military contexts. University has a clear end date, military training has a clear end date. But the corporate world? No graduation ceremony for surviving toxic management or diploma for enduring understaffing.
When your Sunday scaries start on Friday afternoon, that's not a grit deficiency. That's a work design problem.
The timing problem: why grit fails young professionals
Here's what's so obvious that we miss it: young professionals often lack the experiential foundation to know what's worth being gritty about. Encouraging blind persistence at work before someone has developed judgment about direction leads to a grit trap, doubling down on paths that aren't suited to someone’s strengths or interests.
It's too soon to ask or expect you to have focused grit. For what and why? Without variety of experience to distinguish productive struggle from pointless suffering, you end up grinding through everything with equal intensity. That's not character building.
Adam Grant nailed this when he told Stephen Bartlett of DOAC that "practice makes perfect, but it doesn't make new." Those 10,000 hours of deliberate practice Malcolm Gladwell made famous? They're great for creating concert pianists who can play Mozart flawlessly at 6 years old, but terrible for developing composers who write new symphonies. Early career isn't about perfecting known processes, it's about discovering what processes are worth perfecting.
The people telling you to have more grit are usually the same ones who switched majors three times, changed career paths three times, and still can't decide what they want to be when they grow up. But sure, you should definitely commit to suffering through that soul-crushing marketing coordinator role because "persistence builds character."
The alternative: Picking battles over blind persistence
Instead of trying to grind harder, start thinking smarter. The real power comes from knowing when to use perseverance and when to pause, reflect, and find a better way. Create value:
Pick your battles. Not everything deserves your full effort. Learning to spot the high-impact work and actively deprioritize the busywork is way more valuable than grinding through everything with equal intensity. It's about distinguishing challenges worth tackling from dysfunction worth escaping. Would you rather have an intern who stays late doing busywork with unwavering determination, or one who finishes early by automating repetitive tasks? One has grit. The other has value.
Spot the stupid stuff. Young professionals who can spot inefficiencies and suggest improvements are indispensable. This requires analytical thinking and understanding how your work fits into the bigger picture, not just determination. When you walk into a new role and immediately start asking "why do we do it this way?" you're not being difficult. You're being useful.
Question everything. Question everything. Especially processes that seem inefficient or policies that seem counterproductive. Your fresh perspective is valuable. Challenge the system, don't just grit your teeth and bear it. Learn to sniff out pointless tasks, toxic environments, and managers who use "grit" as a euphemism for exploitation. When your gut tells you something is off, listen to it.
Try stuff and see what works. Focus on 10,000 experiments instead of 10,000 hours of practice. Experiments give you data points about what actually works in the real world. Practice might make you 1% better at existing processes. Experimentation teaches you which processes are worth improving.
Know when to say no. Generation z expects employers to care about their wellbeing, and they're right to. Cultivating the self-awareness to know your limits and protect your well-being isn't entitled - it's evolutionary. Companies that prioritize well-being attract and retain better talent. Sustainability beats intensity in the long game.
When persistence pays: the strategic patience framework
This doesn't mean giving up at the first sign of difficulty. It means being strategic about where you apply your energy. Here's how to tell the difference:
Productive discomfort comes from tackling challenges slightly beyond your current abilities. You're learning, improving, and building confidence through competence. When you're excited about going to work despite the challenges, that's worth persisting through. You know that feeling when you're working on something hard but you can't wait to figure it out? That's productive discomfort.
Destructive discomfort comes from situations that are fundamentally wrong for you. Bad management, unclear expectations, or work that conflicts with your values and interests. When you dread monday morning and feel physically sick thinking about your tasks, that's worth escaping. When your biggest achievement each day is not crying in the bathroom, it's time to go.
Smart exits isn't giving up - it's resource reallocation. Ask yourself: Is this challenge worth solving? Does persevering here prevent better opportunities? What's the opportunity cost of not quitting? That's not laziness, that's strategic career management.
Your parents might not understand why you're leaving a "perfectly good job" after six months. But your parents also thought having three TV channels was plenty of entertainment options. Times change. Career strategies should too.
The skills that actually matter
Success shouldn't be measured by how much hardship you can endure. It should be measured by how effectively you can create value, solve problems, and contribute to organizational goals. Instead of developing grit, develop these:
Spotting red flags. Learn to spot the difference between temporary challenges and systemic problems. Temporary challenges improve with time and effort. Systemic problems get worse regardless of your input. If the same issues keep coming up in team meetings month after month with no real solutions, that's a pattern. If your manager keeps promising things will get better "after this project," that's also a pattern.
Knowing when to wait it out. Know when to persist and when to pivot. This isn't about emotional tolerance for difficulty. It's about calculating whether continued investment will generate returns. Some things are worth grinding through. Most aren't.
How to leave without burning bridges. Learn to explain your decisions without defensiveness. "I'm leaving because this role doesn't align with my career goals" sounds more professional than "this place is toxic" even when both are true. Master the art of diplomatic honesty.
Know what you're worth. Understand what you're worth and what opportunities exist. You can't make good career decisions without good information. Check job boards regularly, not because you're looking to leave, but because you need to know what's out there.
Don't be a dick on your way out. Maintain positive connections even when leaving difficult situations. Today's terrible manager might be tomorrow's great reference if you handle the transition professionally. The working world is smaller than you think.
The compound effect of strategic career moves
Every career decision has compound effects. Taking a role that teaches you high-value skills compounds differently than taking one that just pays well short-term. The people who make calculated career moves early benefit from decades of compound growth. Better skills lead to better opportunities lead to better compensation lead to better choices.
The people who "stick it out" in sub-optimal situations pay compound interest on their early mistakes. Lower skills lead to fewer opportunities lead to accepting whatever's available lead to fewer choices.
Every six months, ask yourself: what have I learned that makes me more valuable? If you can't name three specific skills or insights, you're in the wrong place. This doesn't mean job-hopping randomly. It means being intentional about accumulating valuable experiences that build toward something.
Think of your early career like investing. You want your time and energy going toward assets that appreciate, not depreciate. A role that teaches you nothing but how to endure bureaucracy is a depreciating asset. A role that builds your technical skills, expands your network, and gives you stories worth telling? That's compound growth.
The networking reality nobody mentions
People remember strategic movers more than passive stayers.
When you leave a company professionally, you become part of their alumni network. Former colleagues become potential references, mentors, and perhaps business partners. They respect that you made a strategic decision about your career.
When you stay somewhere you're clearly not thriving, you become that person who "just couldn't make it work." Even if you eventually succeed, the narrative becomes about overcoming your initial struggles rather than your smart decision-making.
The person who left after eight months to join a startup that later got acquired looks smart. The person who stayed three years in a dead-end role before finally moving looks like they were stuck. Perception matters.
Why quitting feels so damn scary
Let's talk about the guilt. You'll feel it. That nagging voice that says you're giving up, that you should try harder, that quitting makes you weak. That voice is lying to you.
Sunk cost fallacy is real. Just because you've invested time in something doesn't mean you should keep investing time in it. Would you keep putting money into a broken-down car just because you'd already spent money on repairs? Of course not. Your career decisions should follow the same logic.
Fear of judgment is also real. People will have opinions about your choices. Some will call you flighty or uncommitted. These are usually the same people who complain about their own jobs constantly but never do anything about it. Their opinions say more about their own fear of change than your decision-making.
The people whose opinions actually matter - mentors, industry leaders, successful professionals - understand that strategic career moves are normal and often necessary. They've made them too.
How to leave without looking like a mess
When you decide to leave, do it right:
Document your contributions. Keep records of projects completed, problems solved, and value created. This becomes your story for future interviews. Don't just list what you did; explain the impact it had.
Train your replacement. Even if no one asks. This demonstrates professionalism and ensures your departure doesn't burn bridges. Write down processes, create handover documents, offer to help with the transition.
Give appropriate notice. Two weeks for most roles. More for senior positions or complex handoffs. Less if the situation is genuinely toxic. Don't feel guilty if you need to prioritize your mental health.
Explain your reasoning diplomatically. "I'm looking for opportunities to develop skills in X" works better than "this place is a disaster." Even when the place actually is a disaster.
Maintain relationships. Today's colleague is tomorrow's potential opportunity. Connect on LinkedIn, grab coffee before you leave, keep doors open. You never know who might be useful later.
The freedom of strategic career management
Your career belongs to you. Not your manager, not your company, not your parents who think you should "stick with something." You'll live with the consequences of these decisions for the next forty years. Make them based on what advances your interests, not what satisfies other people's expectations. Either way, it’s your decision.
The economy rewards people who make smart moves, not people who make stubborn ones. Companies promote people who solve problems, not people who endure them. The market pays for results, not suffering.
The most successful young professionals treat their first five years like a laboratory for testing hypotheses about their interests, abilities, and market value. They don't agonize over whether leaving looks bad. They agonize over whether staying serves their goals.
You have permission to be strategic about your career. You have permission to prioritize your growth, your learning, and your wellbeing. You have permission to leave situations that aren't working for you.
The opportunity cost of bad grit
While you're grinding through that soul-crushing role, what opportunities are you missing? What skills aren't you developing? What connections aren't you making? What experiences aren't you having?
Every month you spend in the wrong place is a month you're not spending in the right place. That's not just time lost; that's compounding growth lost. The earlier in your career you optimize for learning and growth, the bigger the payoff over time.
Bad grit keeps you focused on enduring present circumstances instead of creating better future ones. It makes you reactive instead of proactive. It turns you into someone who happens to, instead of someone who makes things happen.
Real talk about money and security
"But I need the paycheck." Of course you do. Nobody's suggesting you quit without a plan or drain your savings account for the sake of career optimization. But don't let short-term financial needs trap you in long-term career mistakes.
Start planning your exit while you're still employed. Update your CV, build your network, apply for other roles. Having options gives you power. When you know you could leave if you wanted to, everything changes. You negotiate differently. You speak up differently. You carry yourself differently.
Financial security comes from being valuable in the marketplace, not from clinging to any particular job. The most secure thing you can do is continuously build skills that make you hirable anywhere.
The courage to begin again
Starting over feels scary. New company, new people, new systems to learn. But you know what's scarier? Staying somewhere that's slowly killing your enthusiasm and potential.
Every successful person has a story about leaving a situation that wasn't working for them. Every happy professional has made strategic career moves. The people who stay in their first job for decades are the exception, not the rule.
You're not starting over. You're building forward and gaining a different set of experiences and skills so that later on you can discern if applying grit serves you. Every experience teaches you something, even the bad ones. Especially the bad ones. The trick is knowing when you've learned everything a situation has to teach you.
What success actually looks like
Success isn't about how much you can endure. It's about how much value you can create, how many problems you can solve, and how many people you can help along the way.
Successful people are strategic about their choices. They invest their time and energy in activities that compound. They build relationships that matter. They develop skills that appreciate. They work on problems worth solving.
They also know when to cut their losses. They don't confuse persistence with progress. They don't mistake suffering for character building. They understand that the best way to honor your potential is to put it to work in the right environment.
Time to optimize for impact
Stop glorifying the grind and start optimizing for impact. Choose intelligence over endurance, strategy over suffering, and well-being over worthless grit.
They want you to have grit because it's easier for them. It keeps you quiet and in line. But your career isn't a military training exercise. You don't get points for unnecessary suffering. You get rewarded for creating value, solving problems, and contributing to success.
The workplace needs young professionals who can think strategically, communicate effectively, and optimize continuously. It doesn't need more people who can grind through broken systems without saying something - or better still, showing something better.
The people preaching grit? They'll understand when you're successful. And if they don't, you'll be too busy succeeding to care.