For my second reading reflection, I read Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck. The general theme of the book challenges the notion that our innate human qualities, such as intelligence and personality, are fixed upon birth. It explores the possibilities of believing that these traits can be developed.
This book connects with what I’m learning in ENT3003 because much of entrepreneurship deals with failure. It’s inevitable to come across countless “no’s” across our journey of designing, producing and promoting a product, and so much of this book helped me learn how to deal with that. If we simply turn our mindsets from negativity to the “growth mindset,” the entire scenario shifts from what used to be a hopeless tragedy to something that’s hopeful for future improvement.
If I had to design an exercise for this class based on this book, I would have students list their top 3 qualities and their perceived weakest qualities (personality, mentality, talents, anything is applicable) and write out how they use these qualities in everyday life. Then, I’d have them write up 3 qualities they want the most and use steps from the book to show them how to achieve exactly what they’re looking for. Finally, all of this would be used to apply to their business model and connect with how they’ll use their attributes to reach others.
I was expecting this book to just be about motivational speaking and thinking positively, but I was surprised to learn about the “growth mindset” that enables all qualities to be cultivated through time. One of my favorite quotes from the book states, “There’s another mindset in which these traits are not simply a hand you’re dealt to have to live with...in this mindset, the hand you’re dealt is just the starting point for development.”
Hi Jung! I decided to comment on this post because I also read this book by Carol Dweck. It's interesting to see how you connected the same concepts we learned from reading the book, but applied it to different concepts that we've learned throughout the semester. For example, I said that a fixed mindset is similar to someone being reluctant to change their idea or target segment because they wrote a business plan.
ReplyDeleteHi Jung, after reading your reflection on the book "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success" I found it quite surprising how different the authors viewpoints on entrepreneurship were in regards to the book that I had read. While your book argues that entrepreneurial skills are fixed at birth, Peter Drucker, the author of the book I read argues that it is based on societies attitude towards entrepreneurship and how it varies from society to society.
ReplyDeleteJung,
ReplyDeleteThis book seems very intriguing, especially to future entrepreneurs. The author of my book, Peter Drucker, feels like it is the opposite on entrepreneurial skills. Both authors showed different viewpoints from what I have read in my book and your reflection.