Grit Guts Genius Pa

``Everybody looks for a quick fix. There isn't any,'' says football coach Lou Holtz, who made Notre Dame's Fighting Irish a championship team. Rejecting this sound advice, USA Today reporters Hillkirk and Jacobson ( Xerox: American Samurai ) offer 27 brief profiles of individuals and companies, drawing simplistic conclusions on how ``megasuccesses'' get that way. Included are former Magellan Fund manager Peter Lynch; Richard Guy and Rex Holt, who coach contestants for the Miss U.S.A. competition; national spelling bee winner Scott Isaacs; and Nintendo, the computer game manufacturer. The lessons to be learned from these case histories are pared down into pithy headings like ``Sell Fantasy and Reassure People'' or ``Master Quality.'' Being male also helps: a token women's chapter discusses NOW's 1989 pro-choice rally in Washington, D.C. And in forming conclusions, the authors ignore the grueling schedules several subjects say they follow; exhorting readers to work a 70-hour week apparently doesn't dovetail with the authors' own attempt to sell fantasy. Photos not seen by PW. (Oct.)