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In Hollywood, she has more Academy Awards than any other performer in a leading role.
Katherine Hepburn is an icon. She began her career as an actress in the late 1920s and worked for more than 60 years. By the end of her journey, she had a lot to show for it.
In some of her early days, however, things weren’t always so smooth. Hepburn was known for her outspoken and independent personality at a time when it wasn’t publically acceptable for women to be outspoken and independent. It certainly didn’t make her many friends. Worse yet, she would take roles that challenged the conventional norm.
Over time, these things weighed on her image, and it reflected in the sales of her movies. At one point, she had so many flops in a row that she was considered box-office poison.
A Story of Mental Toughness
Today, there is a lot of talk about grit. It’s defined as a combination of passion and perseverance. It’s the motivation to achieve one’s objectives through persistent effort even in the face of difficulties and setbacks. It’s required to accomplish anything of significance.
Hepburn’s career started and ended with critical acclaim, but it’s often forgotten that, at one point, she was so unpopular that she opted to leave Hollywood to try and revive her appeal.
Her comeback and the eventual rise of her legacy was the result of an uneven journey, and it wouldn’t have happened had she not kept rising from her falls. Grit was the difference.
Hepburn isn’t unique in that she was able to fight through challenges to achieve something great. That’s almost a prerequisite. That said, in most stories, battles are fought behind closed doors, and we don’t always get to see anything more than the success that follows.
Hepburn’s successes and failures were always public, and her story powerfully exemplifies how grit is harnessed and what it actually entails.
Embrace the Unsexy Definition of Passion
Angela Duckworth is a recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, also known as the “Genius Grant.” She’s the psychologist responsible for popularizing the study of grit.
In her book, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, she makes a case for why grit is important. She presents a number of studies that show a correlation with success in many different domains, and more importantly, she discusses how we can nurture it.
Not surprisingly, passion is of critical importance. It’s in the name of the book, and we’ve all heard it before, but let’s pause there for a second. What does passion actually mean? It’s a very misused term.
Rowdy Gaines is a former competitive swimmer with three Olympic gold medals to his name. In conversation, Duckworth asked him whether he loved to practice. After all, over the years, he had swum more than what it would have taken to circle the world to get to the stage of excellence that he needed to be at.