Hi everyone, welcome to Radio Headspace and to Friday.

It's Malcolm Gladwell here.

Thanks so much for having me as your guest host this week.

Today, I'm going to talk about adversity.

We can be coded as a negative thing we have to overcome, but a lack of obstacles can

rob us of the grit we need to build character.

So let's talk about how to approach life's challenges in a way that's productive and

overcome adversity in a way that benefits us in the long run.

What strikes me when I look around at the people who are successful are the ones who have

a certain amount of determination and are willing to persevere.

You know, in writing, all of the best writers I know are people who do not just a few more

drafts, but like twice as many drafts of any given thing they're working on than the

people I know who are not successful.

Unsuccessful writers, in my mind, tend to be people who just are not willing to persevere

at a given piece of writing until it works.

They give up too soon.

My first drafts aren't terribly good.

I sometimes start over.

Instead of thinking of that as evidence of my weakness or failure, I just think of that

as normal.

That's what it takes.

And I'm also a big believer in small victories.

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