Understanding GRIT: More Than Just Never Giving Up
In psychology, GRIT is generally understood as a combination of passion and perseverance toward long term goals. The concept has been widely developed and studied through the research of psychologist Angela Duckworth and her colleagues.
The American Psychological Association describes GRIT as a tendency to maintain effort and interest toward long term goals, including when individuals encounter failure, obstacles, or slow progress.
This means GRIT is not simply about working hard for a short period of time. GRIT is about developing the stamina to remain committed to something meaningful over the long term.
At the same time, GRIT should be viewed with a broader perspective. It is not the only factor that determines achievement. Research has continued to explore GRIT as one element within a broader combination of characteristics that contribute to individual performance and achievement.
This perspective makes GRIT particularly relevant in the workplace.
GRIT is not about forcing ourselves to keep going without direction. It is about building the capacity to maintain direction, learn, adapt, and improve our approach when the journey toward a goal becomes increasingly complex.
Why Does GRIT Matter in the Workplace?
The modern workplace presents many situations that make this capability increasingly important.
Targets can change.
Priorities can shift.
Operational challenges can emerge unexpectedly.
The results of an initiative may not always be visible immediately.
In such situations, organizations need more than individuals with strong technical capabilities.
They need people who can learn from challenges, navigate setbacks, maintain focus, and continuously find better ways to achieve their objectives.
This is where people development becomes part of organizational strategy. Learning and Development should not simply be viewed as a training activity. It can become an investment in building an organization that is capable of continuous learning and adaptation.
In other words, human capability is part of operational excellence.
From Talent to Skill
One of the key insights from the Sharing Is Caring session was that capability does not stop at talent. Participants were introduced to a simple relationship:
Talent × Effort = Skill
And then:
Skill × Effort = Achievement
The message is clear: potential does not automatically become performance.
Someone may have a natural ability in a particular area. However, without learning, practice, evaluation, and consistency, that potential may never develop into a capability that creates meaningful impact.
This perspective is also aligned with the concept of deliberate practice, in which individuals develop expertise through focused and purposeful practice, particularly by identifying areas that need improvement and continuously working on them.
Therefore, GRIT should not simply be interpreted as “keep working hard no matter what.”
A more meaningful interpretation is the ability to maintain direction, evaluate the process, and continuously build capability while working toward a long term goal.
There are moments when a person’s capabilities are not tested when everything goes smoothly, but when results remain unseen, challenges become greater, and motivation begins to fade.
At that point, the question is no longer simply “How talented are we?” but rather, “How consistently can we keep moving toward our goals?”
This became the central theme of Borwita’s Sharing Is Caring Public Training, held on August 12 and 13, 2026, under the theme “GRIT: Greatness Is Built, Not Born.” Led by Yuliyan Suryo, People Development Specialist, the session invited participants to explore GRIT through three key perspectives: why GRIT matters, how GRIT is developed, and how it can be applied in everyday life and the workplace.
Borwita: Building People Capability Alongside Business Growth
For Borwita, the conversation around GRIT extends beyond a single training session.
As an FMCG Distributor Indonesia with a broad distribution network, Borwita operates in an environment that requires consistent execution, operational accuracy, customer focus, and the ability to adapt to changing business conditions. At this scale, operational excellence cannot be built solely through systems and technology.
It is also built by the people who operate those systems every day.
That is why capability development plays an important role in Borwita’s organizational journey. Borwita’s growth approach places strong emphasis on empowering people, developing capabilities, strengthening accountability, and building the right organizational culture.
The Sharing Is Caring: GRIT Public Training represents one of the ways knowledge sharing can be transformed into a meaningful learning experience for Borwita people. It creates a space where employees can exchange perspectives, reflect on challenges, and explore practical ways to strengthen their ability to keep growing.
Sharing Is Caring: When Knowledge Becomes Collective Capability
There is an important idea behind the concept of Sharing Is Caring. Knowledge does not create its greatest value when it remains with the person who acquires it.
Its value grows when it is shared, discussed, challenged, and applied in real situations.
Through the two day session, participants were not only introduced to the definition of GRIT, but also encouraged to understand how perseverance can be applied when facing challenges and navigating personal and professional development.
This is where employee development takes on a more strategic dimension. When individual learning evolves into shared understanding, an organization does more than develop one individual.
It gradually builds collective capability.
For an organization operating with the complexity and scale of a national distribution business, collective capability becomes increasingly important. Because strong execution does not happen through individual effort alone.
It emerges when people across the organization share the capability, mindset, and commitment to move toward a common objective.
Greatness Is Built, Not Born
Ultimately, the key message from the session is not about becoming someone who is always strong. In any professional journey, there will be moments when energy decreases, strategies do not go as planned, and results do not immediately meet expectations.
That is precisely where GRIT becomes relevant. Not because someone never experiences difficulty, but because they develop the ability to keep learning, evaluate the situation, adapt, and take the next step.
Because greatness is built, not born.
Excellence does not appear in a single moment. It is built through capabilities that are continuously developed, effort that is consistently applied, learning that never stops, and the courage to keep moving forward.
For Borwita, building a stronger organization is also a journey of building stronger and more capable people.
Because when people grow, capability grows.
And when capability grows consistently, an organization gains a stronger foundation to deliver better service, strengthen operational excellence, and continue expanding its reach and accelerating growth across Indonesia.
