My Takeaways from "Mindset, the New Psychology of Success"
I recently finished reading the book Mindset, the New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck Phd, and throughout the past few weeks, as I've digested the key pillars of what she calls a Growth Mindset, I've seen a change in the way that I look at many things relating to business and my personal life.
The book she wrote is broken into 8 sections, each talking about a specific area of how mindset plays into growth and development. Dr. Dweck notes how the specific mindset a person holds impacts every aspect of their life and can either inhibit or accelerate their growth whether that's in the classroom or in the home. After taking notes I thought I'd share what I'd learned.
Key Point 1: The Difference Between Mindsets
The two mindsets that Dr. Dweck speaks of in her book are a Fixed Mindset and a Growth Mindset.
A Fixed Mindset is one that accepts that intelligence is a fixed trait and thereby cannot evolve, improve, or grow. A fixed mindset also is the view that all traits, talents, and abilities that a person has can only be proven, and that failure is a finite determination that reflects on the person. A Growth Mindset, on the other hand, is the view that intelligence, traits, and abilities are NOT predetermined, but can developed, grown, and expanded through learning, education, practice, and experience.
This stood out to me because it's all too often that we see challenges in life as unsurmountable. Highlighted 24/7 by news media, it's always something new that threatens to end humanity as we know it. But, it's not all big problems either... It's the small challenges we face everyday; how to respond to rejection, how to accept failure, and how to overcome loss. Having a fixed mindset means that these challenges define you. In other words, if you fail, you are failure. Alternatively, with a growth mindset, when you fail, the failure doesn't define you intrinsically, but rather becomes a stepping stone that moves you closer to overcoming the reason you failed in the first place.
Thomas Edison is a good example of this growth mindset. When he was asked how he overcame the many failures he had on his way to building the first light bulb, he was noted saying “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Key Point 2: Your Mindset Determines Future Success or Failure
In Mindset, Dr. Dweck spends a considerable amount of time speaking about the impact both fixed and growth mindsets have on the interpersonal and professional accomplishments people have in their life, and to what degree that they personally feel they have achieved success. Chapter 3 specifically dives into the topics of ability and accomplishment and the differences that mindset creates respective to the two.
Dr. Dweck conducts a study with a group of grade school children to determine how mindset plays into their perception of intelligence and success/failure. A group of students were given positive reinforcement around their current intelligence - "You're so smart", "You didn't even need to study for that, because it was so easy!", etc.. While another group of students were praised for their hard work ethic and dedication to studying.
When the material and tests got harder and required more studying and prep, students who were praised on their current intelligence struggled to advance because, like a fixed mindset, they believed that because they were so smart, the education should come easy to them and when it didn't, it was because they weren't smart enough to know it. Students in the other group however found success in increasing grades because they were told that it was because of their work in studying and their dedication to learning that made them succeed, thereby implanting the linear relationship of studying = understanding the concepts.
The reason this stood out to me was because often in my own personal life I find myself with a fixed mindset on particular topics, most notably math. In high school I was under the impression that because geometry and pre-algebra had come easy to me, so should calculus. However as is often the case, it did not. I ended up earning a D+ in my high school pre-calc class and struggled for quite some time to understand why that was. After reflection, and now after reading Dr. Dweck's work it is very clear - if I had the mindset that I could GROW my understanding of pre-calc by PRACTICE and STUDY, then I would have succeeded to a much higher degree in that class.
This is now something that I am now trying to implement into every day of my life because I know that even if I am not great at something in the present, the actions that I do take today will help me to be successful in the future. My key takeaway with this is that no matter what an SAT score says or how well you understand complex algebraic variables and balancing equations, intelligence is an exponential curve that will increase over time corresponding to the work you put in.
Key Point 3: A Growth Mindset is Infectious
Everywhere we look in the startup ecosystem we see lots of the same thing - jeans, coffee, untucked shirts, and office collaboration. Honestly, this may be a bit more common in the Silicon Valley, BUT you get my point.. it's directly the exact opposite from the masses of white button down shirts from companies like IBM in the 60's. My point is, when leaders with the growth mindset surround themselves with a team, their mindset becomes infectious.
Take a tech startup for example. When you're building a new tech product, the first version is not going to be even close to the version you sell for 9 figures right? Exactly my point. The product and the product vision GROW. That product growth mirrors in the way a growth mindset grows within a company. When leaders truly LEAD, they bring others up with them. They open the floor to input and debate, and overall create an atmosphere that breeds mutual success, not competition.
Something that I can attest to at Grand Canyon University, is the amount of growth mindset oriented leaders on campus. Each and every professor and business professional that I have had the privilege to spend time with has in one way or another shown that growth mindset to me. What does that look like you may ask? Simple. 1) Discussions about events and seeking input/validation from new parties. 2) Out of the blue calls to check in and see how we're doing. 3) Giving advice above and beyond the amount requested.. I could go on but I think you get the point.
For those of you who skipped to the bottom or want a recap here it is, my 3 key takeaways:
- A Fixed Mindset = Intelligence and Personal Growth are FIXED. A Growth Mindset = Intelligence and Personal Growth can be developed over TIME.
- The Mindset We have Plays into our Outlook on Success/Failure
- A Growth Mindset is Contagious and will Spread
I would highly recommend this book to anyone seeking to gain a deeper understanding of the Growth Mindset and how to reprogram your brain to love challenges.
Stay safe and stay strong!
Andrew Flowers | Student Director, Canyon Angels