Dweck cites a poll of 143 creativity researchers, who concurred that the number-one trait underpinning creative achievement is precisely the kind of resilience and fail-forward perseverance attributed to the growth mindset. She writes:

When you enter a mindset, you enter a new world. In one world — the world of fixed traits — success is about proving you’re smart or talented. Validating yourself. In the other — the world of changing qualities — it’s about stretching yourself to learn something new. Developing yourself.

In one world, failure is about having a setback. Getting a bad grade. Losing a tournament. Getting fired. Getting rejected. It means you’re not smart or talented. In the other world, failure is about not growing. Not reaching for the things you value. It means you’re not fulfilling your potential.

In one world, effort is a bad thing. It, like failure, means you’re not smart or talented. If you were, you wouldn’t need effort. In the other world, effort is what makes you smart or talented.

The challenge with a growth mindset is that we live in a world where the majority have fixed mindsets.

One of the most basic beliefs we carry about ourselves, Dweck found in her research, has to do with how we view and inhabit what we consider to be our personality. A “fixed mindset” assumes that our character, intelligence, and creative ability are static givens which we can’t change in any meaningful way, and success is the affirmation of that inherent intelligence, an assessment of how those givens measure up against an equally fixed standard; striving for success and avoiding failure at all costs become a way of maintaining the sense of being smart or skilled. A “growth mindset,” on the other hand, thrives on challenge and sees failure not as evidence of unintelligence but as a heartening springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities

Is that really true?  That's depressing!  How about 40% fixed mindsets? ;)

Most people use their fixed mindset as an excuse not to learn.

http://pandawhale.com/post/34760/fixed-mindset-vs-growth-mindset-how-your-beliefs-change-your-behavior

I call this: being okay with looking like an idiot.

I wish we could teach more people to be okay with looking like an idiot.

Well, if we did teach that we would kiss goodbye and have to find new work for Jon Stewart, Comedy Central and every stand-up comedian in history and to come... plus, all great tragedies and comedies would have to be redacted.

All this just because some of us want to accept it's ok to wear half our lunch on our polo shirts at the junior high prom and ignore it as if it's ok?  And Adam, you've made it big time and now you're running your own company to boot!  Like I always say, "if I can do it, anybody else can and probably even better."

I prefer growth mindset and all the laughs and sorrows that go with it... and I wore plenty of food on my polos, still do, and with enough time you just don't care much about all that.  So enjoy it while it lasts.

Anybody else CAN and probably even better! But will they? Unlikely.

This growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. Although people may differ in every which way — in their initial talents and aptitudes, interests, or temperaments — everyone can change and grow through application and experience.

> I wish we could teach more people to be okay with looking like an idiot.

We just have to be the best role models we can, Adam. :-)

Ernie, you're right. We have to be the change we seek.

Plus, now we have an excuse for looking like an idiot...