Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (21A)
For the second assigned reading, I decided to read Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck and I learned so much about the concept of what Dweck calls the “growth mindset.” According to Dweck, “in a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent are simply fixed traits” whereas “in a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed.”
The general argument of the book follows how the simple idea of living out the ‘growth mindset’ through brain habits can foster a love for learning new material even if it is challenging and produce an uncommon resilience that leads to more fulfillment in every accomplishment associated with work and life. Dweck claims that even if someone currently has a fixed mindset, even that “is not a fixed thing.” To adopt a growth mindset, individuals must first know about the two mindsets and THEN they can “start thinking and reacting in new ways.”
This book absolutely connected with what I am learning in this course because one of the ideas Dweck stresses is that you must focus on learning over achievement. In entrepreneurship, starting and managing a business will never be easy. Failure is bound to happen and achievement is not guaranteed. However, good entrepreneur’s must learn from past mistakes and assess what went wrong so that they can try again next time and attack the situation from a new perspective.
Reflecting on Mindset, an exercise I would develop would actually be to challenge the future baristas who work at the Mount. In Dweck’s extensive research and numerous studies, she presented her subjects with numerous situations; one group would receive the growth mindset activity and another would receive the fixed mindset activity. Since I am not experimenting, I would just present my barista’s a growth mindset activity that might challenge them to create a new drink or combination never been done before.
My ‘aha moment’ from this book was Dweck’s ask of parents, teachers, and coaches to teach and not judge. I believe this idea is so important for developing students and children in general who feel free to make mistakes because they know it will come with a learning experience. When people of authority judge instead of teach, “it makes children doubt themselves as soon as anything is hard or anything goes wrong.” This creates a cycle of dependency on praise instead of developing a sustainable source of confidence.
Hey, Great post. I enjoyed reading your reflection on this book, because it seems like an invigorating and important book to read! I like analyzing books, and having the right mindset for things is important in developing our entrepreneurship ideas.
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Chloe
Hello Juliana, fun fact I almost chose the same book that you chose this week, but I decided on Cognitive surplus because I love learning about customer mentalities and how they think when they consume. Something extremely interesting about your post was a lot of the motives and main topics in your post overlapped with some of the major themes and motives in my book. Such as the idea that accomplishments from ideas that a consumer thinks they made, is more fulfilling. Great post!
ReplyDeleteHello Juliana,
ReplyDeleteI really liked what you had to say about “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”. I chose to complete this reading assignment as well. I believe that Carol S. Dweck brings up valid points pertaining to both types of mindsets. The fixed mindset and the growth mindset are vital to achieving success. Though one may accept that a fixed mindset leads to abilities being set in stone, it deters them from what could have been.