Reading Reflection No. 2

Book: Mindset

This entire book is focused around individual's mindsets and how it can control your thoughts, as well as outcomes based on two types of mindsets, Fixed and Growth. The idea is that people with the Growth mindset have the abilities to learn or do anything they pursue based on the the fact that they believe you can improve your intelligence by teaching yourself and learning new things. Fixed mindset is the belief that your intelligence is fixed, or can not be changed or influenced throughout your life. It is what it is. You are blessed with intelligence or you are not. The author describes many experiments and surveys she conducted on students of different ages. They would determine which group the students were in from the very beginning, either fixed or growth. And watched as their beliefs and actions affected their different successes. 

This book connects with Entrepreneurship and the course because it is basically telling us that if we believe we can do something, have an open mind and a willingness to learn, we really can accomplish almost anything we want to do, which entrepreneurs should always think. To build and run your own business, you can't doubt your abilities. In trying something new, you are taking a risk. Fixed Mindsetters would only do something they knew they would succeed at, while Growth Mindsetters would try something, even if they didn't know the outcome, because they love a challenge. 

To keep with the theme of the book, I would design an exercise that involves either an experiment or survey. We could have the class submit their answers, and post the results. I would start by asking how many students in the class see themselves as one or the other. An interesting result she mentioned was how labels and compliments can cause different mindsets, so I would ask who has ever been labeled; did your parents ever tell you you were smart; would they congratulate you for trying or only for winning, etc.  

As you may be able to tell by my class experiment, I found it interesting how parents praising their children in different ways could make a child feel labeled and help to create a certain mindset. I know I am guilty of some of the things she mentioned in there as leading to a fixed mindset with my child. I know that I will make a conscious effort to work my "compliment and praises" more carefully, so my son knows that I am proud of him for trying, and not for winning. This is the most valuable information I could have learned in helping to develop my son into a happy, healthy, GROWTH minded individual.