“Conventional measures of potential, such as IQ tests, turn out to be rather impotent unless yoked to deeper aspects of character: the willingness to work through difficulties, and not be threatened by the failures that are an inevitable aspect of life.

“The problem is that we live in an X Factor culture world that is all about instant success and gratification. If kids think success happens effortlessly, why would they bother to persevere when they hit challenges and difficulties?”

People who haven’t developed the traits required for dealing with setbacks are often flustered by ambiguity and challenge. Well-adjusted young people do not ignore failuures, or give up when faced by them, but learn from them and don’t make the same mistakes again. Mistakes are learning opportunities, build resilience and self-understanding. Karl Popper is quoted as saying, “True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it”. (Mathew Said in The Guardian Weekly (edited))

Grit is the word I would use. It is a rare person who gets through life without a setback, mistake or crisis. One has to take it as calmly as possible, determine not to let it happen again, put it behind you and set out to do better next time. It’s a frame of mind.