Personal Perspective on Mindset: How You Can Fulfil Your Potential

I chose to read this book because of the reviews and recommendations I got for it, and because of the author, ms. Carol Dweck, which is a Stanford University’s psychologist. The research behind this book is enormous so the amount of knowledge inside is trusted. I think that I have potential, so as the title says, I want to fulfil it. I don’t believe that one book may change my life from now on and I will achieve full potential instantly, but this might be one step forward.

The book is about one simple idea: the mindset of an individual is the foundation of accomplishment. Even though the book could have been much shorter, the examples given are meaningful and made me better understand the characteristics of the two types of mindset, how they work and the behaviors that people have. The two types are fixed mindset and growth mindset, also named rigid or flexible mentality.

People with fixed mindset believe intelligence can not be changed while the growth-oriented feel intelligence can be developed, have a desire just to look smart while others want to learn a lot and be smart, they avoid challenges and get defensive when obstacles occur instead of facing challenges and obstacles, for them effort doesn’t count and their belief is talent exists while growers find effort as a way to master things, don’t react well to feedback of any kind and they feel in danger by others’ success while others want to get constructive feedback and improve based on it and see opportunities in the success of the people around. One of the most important characteristics for growth-oriented is the trial and error behaviour. They try, fail, try again and fail better next time until they do it.

What should be kept in mind is that nobody has a total fixed or a total growth oriented mindset, and we are mixed, but we have an inclination to one of them. For some it may be that fixed is most, for others the growth one. For some people it may be better to have a fixed mindset rather than a growth one and vice-versa. It is not mandatory that growth-minded are the best, but a balance between them should exist. The examples given in the book are relevant and the domains in which its principles can be applied vary. Different mindset characteristics are presented in sports, business, relationships, parenting and teaching.

Mindset in sports - the example given is the one of Michael Jordan. He was not a talented basketball player when he started, but he is now famous as being one of the most valuable in the basketball’s history. The thing he did was that he started to work hard and be disciplined right before he was about to drop basketball. He started waking up in 6AM and go for intensive trainings, day by day. He took this challenge and succeeded. Ms. Carol Dweck speaks also about the ones that are “naturals” - skilled since they were born - as being more inclined to develop fixed mindsets because they don’t learn how to work hard as Jordan did. Because I played football for 8 years, I have an opinion regarding how mindset influence sportsmen. It is crucial that the mindset is growth oriented, because it is so rare that people that have a talent work hard for their future. They become lazy and comfortable with the idea that they are good enough and no one will get over their skills, which is actually happening.

Mindset in Business

In the book it is presented how IBM got a growth of 800% in 9 years after fundamenting their strategy on working in teams and focusing on training their leaders and managers into a growth mindset. It’s called developing a growth mindset environment where people are encouraged to learn skills at their workplace, disagreeing with innate talent or giving feedback that encourages to have success This became a common characteristic in hiring for the big companies since then - employers seek to find people that are growth oriented and willing to learn. This is a meaningful insight because in the stage I am in, I need to find people that believe in me and they will do it based on the potential and willingness to grow that they see I have.

What really struck me about the mindset of some of the rekon managers is the comparison between those with fixed mindset and those with growth mindset, the way each of them were perceiving their company. Those with fixed mindset were seeing companies as an extension of themselves, thus their actions were towards maximising their personal merit. Those with growth mindset saw beyond personal achievement, for the good of the company. My learning from this is how thin is the limit between these two typologies of CEOs but how drastically is the outcome of their actions. At this level I think it is very important to be aware of this flaws that might appear in your thinking process. Nevertheless, I really believe that this era of CEOs with fixed mindset is bound to end because more and more people are becoming conscious regarding the leaders that they are following.

Mindset in Parenting and Teaching

This chapter made me think about my childhood, and I understood the role my parents had in my childhood. When we are born, we don’t have any mindset - our parents shape it. I realised that with every interaction they had with me, they were making an input on what I would become later as an adult. Generally, they weren’t imposing what to do and they invested a lot of trust in me and my brother. We should do things, try new stuff by our own and be self-disciplined. It was harsh in the beginnings, but with the time passing by we grew up as more responsible and autonomous, knowing that they are interested in our development. I realised that our parents also didn’t put a label on us with a permanent trait that we have or judged us, how it often happens for others, but constantly humbly praised the effort we do and the choices we make. They were honest and didn’t tell us that we are the most beautiful or the most intelligent and they were telling us when we were wrong.

Personal Thought

In my opinion the attitude is the one that matters the most when developing a mindset. Even if it is a small or a big thing to be done, it is important that I take responsibility on them, irrespective if the outcome is good or bad. If I accept it being bad and want to improve it or if it is good and I want to make it perfect. Furthermore, after getting out the knowledge from this book, my belief is that thoughts are turned into actions - and we are only limited by our brain. And if it is believed, then it can be achieved, no matter how big the goal is set. For me, this is what mindset is about. And it may be the shift I need to scale-up our business and wish for more. All I need is goal in which I believe. In a nutshell, this book shows relevant traits of both the fixed and the growth mindset and brang a new perspective about how things work on a psychological level. My main takeaway was learning how to identify if I have a growth or fixed mindset and what can I do to make it better. Definitely it is a step forward.