The number one greatest predictor of success isn’t what you think.

As she notes in her New York Times Bestseller, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, achievement is defined by two simple equations. 

Talent x effort = skill, and skill x effort = achievement. Talent, combined with effort, increases your skill level. Your increasing skill, multiplied by effort, leads to achievement. 

That means effort counts twice, but that doesn’t mean it’s only twice as important. If you substitute the skill equation into the achievement equation, you end up with: talent x effort x effort = achievement, which means that talent x effort² = achievement.

Your effort is exponentially more important than your talent. 

Ducksworth argues that if we focus too much on talent—if we treat it as something we either have or don’t, rather than something we can develop into a skill with effort—then we’re unlikely to pursue things at which we don’t automatically succeed, even if we love them. People who only focus on where they are talented miss the opportunity to grow and pursue great things in other areas where they may not be as talented. 

Talent determines what you are capable of. Grit determines how much of that capability you ultimately realize. 

Drive can get you started, but grit gets you to the finish line. 

Entrepreneurial mindsets are not unique—it’s not that hard to have an idea, to have the motivation and drive to set in motion something you’re passionate about. Yet being a successful entrepreneur and building an extraordinary organization often looks like magic to those on the outside. That those who are successful are so because they are the smartest or most talented in the room. 

They aren’t. I’m not. 

It doesn’t mean doubling down and stubbornly continuing a bad strategy; you can change the plan without changing the goal. A gritty leader adapts, takes feedback, changes tactics, and keeps moving toward the mission. 

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
Galatians 6:9
 

Grit isn’t just for leaders—or for careers. 

At DLP, we define Grit as having the endurance and unshakable commitment necessary to achieve our visionary long-term goals. We emphasize the importance of building a team of impact players, as defined by Liz Wiseman in her book of the same name. These are the people who are gritty, who finish strong despite challenges, setbacks, and even failures. Recently, we’ve also introduced the concept of the opposite of the impact player: the casual player. These are people who are not gritty, who do not finish strong, and are easily discouraged or blown down by setbacks. They’re nowhere to be found when there are tight deadlines or when work needs to reach the finish line. 

Extraordinary Organizations aren’t built by people who never fail—they are built by people who refuse to let failure determine the outcome. They are built by impact players. 

Grit is one of DLP’s core values, not just because we believe it is essential to building an extraordinary organization, but also because we believe it is essential to building an extraordinary life. As you’ll continue to hear me talk about as I prepare to launch my new book in March of 2027, Extraordinary Organizations emphasize helping their clients and team members live fully across all 8 F’s of life—and that takes grit, too. 

It takes grit to keep showing up for yourself and your biggest goals in faith, finance, and fitness. It takes grit to prioritize your relationship with your spouse as you grow your family. It takes grit to put 120% into your workday so that when you come home at the end of the night, there is no difference between where your head is and where your feet are. 

I consider grit one of the 13 Commitments of Living Fully. These commitments can help you live with greater intentionality, discipline, accountability, and purpose. In the workplace, these principles influence how leaders grow teams, navigate challenges, pursue long-term goals, and build Extraordinary Organizations. 

You can watch the workshop I offered earlier this year at the link below to learn more about how embracing these commitments can transform your life, your career, your family, and your legacy. 

The Freedom of Living Inside the Box

One of the areas where our grit is coming into play for DLP this year is in our unwavering commitment to bend the curve. This is a goal I set for the team at our annual Vision Day to drive greater results with less effort, including less time and resources. The idea is simple: as you exert more effort, you naturally achieve greater results, but only up to a certain point. Eventually, the curve begins to level off, and no matter how many additional resources you throw at it, you’re only seeing incremental progress, not the large swings you started with. 

One way to do more with less is to work under greater constraints. I’ve been reading David Epstein’s Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better both personally and as part of DLP’s leadership book club, Driven for Greatness. Epstein’s book challenges our modern obsession with unlimited choices and options: pages of shows on streaming services, endless aisles of seemingly identical products that leave you in decision paralysis over something as straightforward as olive oil. His argument? Strategic boundaries and self-imposed limits are the primary catalysts for creativity, focus, and performance—not unlimited freedom of choice. 

Key Lessons from Inside the Box

The Freedom Trap: Designing Strategic Boundaries

This is Epstein’s main thesis: total freedom paralyzes decision-making and leads to predictable, low-effort solutions. Conversely, strategic boundaries—such as reduced budgets, tight deadlines, or strict formatting—force the brain off the path of least resistance. 

The solution? Limits. Working within a structured framework forces momentum because there is no room to think of different paths: there’s one path to follow, and staying on it will get you where you need to go. 

Satisficing vs Maximizing: Overcoming Decision Fatigue

The endless search for the “best” option—maximizing—causes decision paralysis. How can you get started on a path if you aren’t sure it’s the best one? You just choose what is viable at the moment; you prioritize action over perfection. Could there have been a better way to do something? Of course, but perfection is the enemy of progress. Getting started is what matters.

Unlocking the Bottleneck: Applying Constraint Theory

Entrepreneurs are natural problem solvers and optimizers. Yet when we see a problem, the initial temptation to optimize and overhaul an entire system can, more often than not, slow us down, adding weeks or even months of work when a few days would do. 

Epstein asserts that outsized growth comes from identifying and widening the single tightest bottleneck in a workflow, rather than redesigning the entire workflow. Ask yourself and your teams, if we could remove only a single friction point in our workflow today, which one would double our total output? That’s bending the curve. Prioritize unblocking what will lead to the greatest flow and come back to the rest when you can. 

Think Slow, Act Fast (Upfront Boundary Scaffolding)

This is another way of looking at the old adage, “measure twice, cut once.” Slowing down at the start of a project, spending deliberate time establishing strict project parameters (thinking slow), allows teams to execute swifty without constant pivoting (acting fast). 

Epstein’s message is clear: uncontrolled scope kills ambitious projects. Before launching an initiative, make it clear what the project will and won’t cover. Think about breaking things down into phases and prioritizing resources and needs for each phase. 

Building at the Edges: Constraint-Based Innovation

Innovation rarely requires a blank slate and is best served by scaffolding on existing rules and structures. Epstein uses the example of Shakespeare recycling plots or Bach working within straight musical structures. Building at the edges leverages standard industry scaffolds (think existing distribution channels, familiar user interfaces, etc.) not only to reduce the effort and resources required (bending the curve) but also to minimize execution risk and reduce the friction of customer adoption. 

Multiplying Impact Through Leadership Development

Next month, DLP will bring together high-impact leaders from across the country for our biggest conference of the year, our Building Extraordinary Organizations & Leadership Conference. I’ll be joined by Tim & Demi-Leigh Tebow, as well as my friend and mentor, John C. Maxwell, for four education-packed days of learning, networking, and setting the foundation for the Extraordinary Organizations set to transform lives for years to come. 

At the same time, we’ll be pouring into our own team members, investing in the leaders they are becoming, which is one of my deepest commitments as a leader—and something I believe should be front and center for any leader looking to build an Extraordinary Organization built on a culture that equally emphasizes care and compassion alongside high standards.

Events like these are what make DLP unique: it’s about pouring into families, investors, entrepreneurs, leaders, and team members in ways that promote growth, inspire reflection, and multiply impact that will ripple across generations. Our focus is always on equipping and empowering people to build extraordinary organizations, families, marriages, and lives, whether we’re hosting an intimate dinner, running a virtual workshop, touring the properties we invest in, or hosting a family field day during a family retreat at Dollywood. 

As we start planning our 2027 calendar, I want to do more of what’s meaningful to you, and I want to do it where you are. If you could take a moment to complete this quick survey for our team, we would greatly appreciate it. 

Wenner Family BHAG Progress

Our family's big, hairy, audacious goal (BHAG) is to experience 1,000 in 100 different places before Donny goes to college. As of September 7,  2026, we’ve shared 462 extraordinary days as a family.

Some of our most recent extraordinary days were celebrated in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania, where much of my family still lives. We had the opportunity to celebrate my stepfather’s 60th birthday and also attend the baptism of my niece and goddaughter, Maycie Godiska. 

Where I've Been