A summary of things you should know about Mindset according to Carol Dweck:

Introduction

In this episode world-renowned Stanford University psychologist, Carol Dweck, shares all her insights on her book, Mindset, where she explains why it’s not just our abilities and talents that bring us success–but whether we approach them with a fixed or growth mindset.

In her book Dweck provides a checklist to assess yourself and shows how a particular mindset can affect all areas of your life, from business to sports and love. The goal of the book is to teach you how to reach your own personal and professional goes while developing a love of learning and resilience that is the bases of great accomplishment in every area in order to achieve ultimate success.

This book is perfect for entrepreneurs who are trying to figure what it is that makes them tick and would like to increase their own feelings of success and fulfillment.

The Book’s Unique Quality (2:29)

There are a lot of books on how to be successful and they are wonderful books but they don’t tell you the mindset, the way of thinking that can lead you on the path to success or failure. And they don’t tell you how to change your mindset to be more successful.

The Best Way To Engage (3:11)

I am told that it’s a very quick read. I am also told that many CEO’s read it all the way through and read it every year to remind themselves of the mindset lessons.

The Reader’s Takeaway (15:15)

I would want the reader to know that their abilities can be developed and that their abilities are developed through taking on challenges and sticking to them.

A Deep Dive Into The Book (4:13)

The book opens by describing the mindsets. How do people differ and why do some people love a challenge and others want to play it safe?

The first mindset is a fixed mindset where people believe that talents and abilities are just these fixed traits, you have a certain amount and that’s it. When you have this fixed mindset you really, really care where your intelligence and talents are fixed. So you’re always trying to look smart and avoid mistakes that might make you look foolish. Your life is organized around looking smart and not looking dumb and when this permeates an organization we call it a culture of genius.

The other mindset is a growth mindset. In this mindset people believe that their talents and abilities can be developed. In a growth mindset you believe your basic talents and abilities developed through hard work, good strategies, and mentoring from others. Instead of worrying if you are going to look smart or not, in the growth mindset you jump into challenges because that’s how you learn. You choose things that are hard and you stick to them and you end up accomplishing more. This growth mindset also creates better teamwork because you believe in growing abilities through collaborating with others. In the long run people with the growth mindset not only accomplish more but they foster accomplishment in others.

Then in the book I go through how these mindsets actually work. So we talked about taking on challenges verses avoiding them, and another thing is effort. In a fixed mindset effort is a bad thing and they belief is if you were really smart things should come easily.

I then go into mindset in sports and it turns out that most of the really, really successful athletes have had a growth mindset. Many of them were naturally talented but they didn’t coast on it and they capitalized that by working hard and developing it.

The next chapter is on business and I do case studies of leaders with growth and fixed mindsets.

The book also talks about mindsets and relationships and how a fixed mindset can really derail a relationship whereas a growth mindset can help solve problems over the course of the relationship.

The next chapter deals with parents, teachers, and coaches and how to foster growth mindset in kids.

The final chapter is on changing mindsets. All of us are really a combination of fixed and growth mindsets. We can have fixed mindsets in some areas and growth mindsets in others. Or we can even change from situation to situation when we feel we are being measured and judged. It teaches us how to be aware of those mindsets and how to bring ourselves more into a growth mindset when that’s desirable.

NOTE: That was just a summary. To get the full deep dive, play the audio clip at 4:13

Notable Quotes From The Book (16:20)

“It’s for you to decide whether change is right for you right now. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. But either way keep the growth mindset in your thoughts then when you bump up against obstacles you can turn to it, it will always be there for you showing you a path into the future.” – Carol Dweck

The Credibility/Inspiration Of The Author (0:35)

I am a Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and I have been studying why people succeed and fail for over 40 years.

I have been doing research for many years on why some people are go getter’s and jump in whereas others, just as talented or able, shy away from difficulty and end up not fulfilling their potential. After researching this for many years I came to the discovery of the mindsets as the cause of these differences. My students told me I had to write this book after benefiting from this knowledge and wanted others to know about it.

Other Books Recommended By The Author (17:07)

Developing Talent in Young People by Benjamin Bloom

The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Gould

More Information About This Book and The Author

Buy Mindset by Carol Dweck on Amazon today

Visit MindsetOnline.com to learn more about Carol and her book

Follow Carol Dweck on Twitter and Facebook

More Information About This Episode

Download the full transcript here (coming soon)

Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud

Related books:

How To Succeed in 12 Months by Serena Star-Leonard

The Happiness of Pursuit by Chris Guillebeau

Body of Work by Pamela Slim

Relevant advice and tips:

10 Bad Habits That Successful People Avoid

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Wade Danielson

Wade is a 4-time serial entrepreneur and is the Founder/Host of The Entrepreneurs Library. With a long time passion for reading books, Wade created an online resource and podcast for entrepreneurs who love to read personal and business development books. His long-term goal in life is to start an entrepreneurial home schooling program for children of business-minded families.