Mindset summary

People with a fixed mindset believe that talent is king. In their view, a person’s abilities are set in stone from the get-go; a person is, by nature, either intelligent and talented or stupid and incompetent, and will stay that way.

Big companies like Enron and McKinsey ­– whose HR departments invest a lot of money into scouting out so-called naturals at universities – embody this way of thinking. The grads they hire are expected to instantly boost company performance with their outstanding abilities. But since the grads are so talented, they receive little training and are not expected to progress in their jobs or grow into new roles.

When children with a growth mindset are given a difficult math problem to solve at school, they jump to the challenge and want to do more problems just like it at home. They recognize that the more problems they solve, the more they learn.

The sky’s the limit when it comes to life’s possibilities for children with a growth mindset. It’s hard to define their precise degree of intelligence today, let alone predict what it may be tomorrow. Sure, their grades reflect their status at one moment in time, but these kids believe they can learn more with hard work, dedication and perseverance.

Lee Iacocca became the CEO of Chrysler Motors when it was on the brink of collapse. Thanks to his swift decision-making and good feel for employees, he was just able to bring the company back to life.

But after that, his behavior changed abruptly. He started resting on his laurels, flaunting his superiority and putting more energy into his own image than into the company’s welfare. His sole objective became to seek approval from others.

Failure has dramatic repercussions for people with a fixed mindset. Take the golfer Sergio García. When he was having a bad streak, he fired one caddy after another in fits of rage. Once, he even blamed his shoes, whereupon he took them off and threw them at an innocent bystander out of frustration.

People with a fixed mindset do not believe they can learn from their mistakes. They see a single failure as evidence that they will be losers forever: one defeat negates and devalues all past successes.

There are many things in life we can only achieve with effort. Yet when people with a fixed mindset are faced with a difficult situation, all they can see are risks, because the more time and energy they invest in something, the fewer excuses they have if they fail. Plus, they believe in the enormous power of natural talent: gifted people should not need to try so hard.

This way of thinking makes it impossible for people with a fixed mindset to better themselves without questioning their own talent – and so they avoid difficult situations. They do not want to potentially make a fool of themselves.

What factors determine whether a person has a growth or a fixed mindset? What factors determine whether a person realizes his potential or spends his life treading water?

Mindset development begins at birth. Babies come into the world with a growth mindset: they want to learn and grow as much as possible each day.

Nobody has to be a victim of her surroundings when developing her own mindset. The brain can be trained like any other muscle: if we want a growth mindset, we can teach ourselves to think that way one step at a time.

Here’s an example: you accidentally drop a plate on the floor. The first – fixed – thought might be, “I’m so clumsy!” But people who are conscious of this reaction and want to change it can push themselves to adopt a growth mindset by thinking, “Oh well, these things happen. I’ll clean it up and be more careful next time.”