NickVenturella.com 4-24-16

Growth Mindset

April 24, 2016

I’ve recently been reading the book,  Mindset – The New Psychology of Success, by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D.

The book provides some level of a scientific answer to why some individuals find success (defined in numerous ways) in their lives over others.

The main differentiator between sustained success and volatility is mindset – that of a growth mindset or a fixed mindset.

As you might imagine, the growth mindset sees learning opportunity in failures – iterative progress that eventually leads to improvement and eventually success.

The fixed mindset believes you’ve either “got it†or you don’t and your ability to achieve success is based on your natural talent.

In the book, Dweck offers example after example of how and why a fixed mindset is dangerous for one’s ability to reach their full potential and success.

This is mainly because the fixed mindset believes there is a limit at which point you no longer have to practice, dig in or work hard to achieve success – you’ve already proven yourself and your talent, thus, you can achieve anything.

However, what ends up happening is the person who keeps working hard to consistently improve their work (whatever work that may be) will eventually surpass the person with the fixed mindset who stops working at their endeavor with the same passion and fervor as someone with a growth mindset.

Talent alone cannot get you to success, or if it does it will be fleeting.

Being a passionate student of your craft will get your further than any raw talent if you optimistically view every bump and failure as an iterative learning milestone.

I enjoy this idea, probably because I subscribe to the growth mindset.

I don’t fancy myself as the most talented artist, writer or musician, but I do continue to be a passionate student of my work in those areas.

That keeps me achieving more, more often than many creatives I know who bought into their own talent hype.

There’s a passage in Mindset where Dweck references Jim Collins’ book, Good to Great.

Dweck connects her premise to the demise of a fixed mindset business leader that is underscored by Collins findings from his famous book.

Dweck is referring to fixed mindset leaders whose companies are no longer “winning,†and those leaders cannot, nor would not ever admit that the declining business outcome is their fault.

Such a leader will go out of his/her way to protect their “hero†status even if it means sabotaging his/her subordinates just to create a self-fulfilling prophesy that others caused the demise.

Here’s the passage:

“When bosses mete out humiliation, a change comes over the place. Everything starts revolving around pleasing the boss. In Good to Great, Collins notes that in many of his comparison companies (the ones that didn’t go from good to great, or that went there and declined again), the leader became the main thing people worried about. ‘The minute a leader allows himself to become the primary reality people worry about, rather than reality being the primary reality, you have a recipe for mediocrity, or worse.’â€

Being creative is no different. The minute your work and pursuit becomes about fame and how talented you are vs. the value you’re providing your audience because you have a passion to do this, you will struggle, have limited success or none at all.

The worst part is, those in that situation won’t believe it’s a series of factors beyond them self that have kept them from success.What's your mindset?Have a great week!