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We're primed to think that talent is the key to success. But what counts even more is a fusion of passion and perseverance. In a world of instant gratification, grit may yield the biggest payoff of all. By Peter Doskoch Photograph by Karjean Levine
IN THE SUMMER OF 1994, IN THE TALLEST of Princeton University's ivory towers, Andrew Wiles was completing one of the most extraordinary odysseys in the history of math. For more than three decades, Wiles had been obsessed with Fermat's Last Theorem, a seemingly simple problem that had stumped mathematicians for 350 years. French mathematician Pierre de Fermat had noted that although there are plenty of solutions to the equation X^sup 2^ + Y^sup 2^ = Z^sup 2^ (for example, 3^sup 2^ + 4^sup 2^ = 5^sup 2^), there is no corresponding solution if the numbers are cubed instead of squared. In fact, Fermat scribbled in the margin of a book that he had "truly marvelous" proof that the equation X^sup n^ + Y^sup n^ = Z^sup n^ has no solution if n is any number greater than 2. Unfortunately, he never put his proof on paper.
Wiles was 10 years old when he encountered the theorem. "It looked so simple, and yet all the great mathematicians in history couldn't solve it, I knew from that moment that I had to." When classmates were flocking to rock concerts, he was studying how geniuses of prior eras approached the problem. He abandoned the quest after college in order to focus on his budding academic career, but his obsession was rekindled in 1986, when a fellow mathematician showed that proving a certain mathematical hypothesis-this one unsolved for a mere 30 years-would also prove Fermat's theorem. He set aside all but the few classes he was teaching-and revealed his quest to no one but his wife. To disguise his single-mindedness, he rationed the publication of previously completed work.
Despite long hours of focus-his only source of relaxation was playing with his two young children-the next few years produced little concrete progress. "I wasn't going to give up. It was just a question of which method would work," says Wiles. In 1993, after seven straight years of intense work-more than 15,000 hours-Wiles stepped up to...