Unscripted: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Entrepreneurship pdfdrive com

parted like the Red Sea and it was an instant 
Night at the Apollo
. Anyway, I
started hanging out with my neighbor, going to clubs and dance raves. Slowly, I
picked up his skills. He took notice and started guiding me. In a matter of
months, I was dancing like him, parting my own Red Seas. If you’re not
impressed, you should be; I was a geeky, uncoordinated white kid from the
suburbs. Soon we were dancing in Chicago’s inner hoods and battling with the
best of the best. Heck, every once in a while, we’d really live adventurously and
pop into an Omega Psi Phi party. Anyhow, the demonstrative point of my hip-
hop escapades is that 
new skills can be acquired and mastered regardless of your
current level of talent or intelligence
. And yet, had I suffered from a fixed mindset,
I would have resigned to fixed statements of existence: “I can’t dance and have
no rhythm; I’m just a pasty white dude from the suburbs.”
Fixed-mindset research has been well documented, studied, and proven.
Carol Dweck, PhD, is the leading researcher in the field of motivation at
Stanford University and the pioneer behind the fixed-mindset discovery. Her
book 
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
explores just how dangerous a fixed
mindset is to personal growth, success, and even child development.
In one of her studies, Dweck and her colleagues gave fifth graders ten easy
problems from a nonverbal IQ test. After completing the problems, the kids were
given either of two types of praise: (1) fixed, intelligence praise, such as, “That’s a
really great score; you must be smart”; or (2) growth, effort praise, such as,
“That’s a really great score; you must have really worked hard.”
Later in the experiment, the children were then given an opportunity to do
another test of their choice, one described as easy, or one described as
challenging. Their preference heavily swayed upon the type of praise they

---

received prior. A whopping 67 percent of the intelligence-praised children opted
for the easy test, while 92 percent of the effort-praised chose the challenging one.
Dweck goes on to explain how fixed-mindset praise can create an
environment where students feel the need to prove intelligence while
simultaneously avoiding risks or challenges. She explains, “As a result [of the
fixed praise] they enter a fixed mindset, they play it safe in the future and limit
the growth of their talent.”
36
Further in the experiment, the students were given an impossible test
designed to incite failure. Once again, the fixed-mindset group performed
statistically poorly against their effort-praised counterparts, becoming frustrated
easily and giving up early. And lastly, each group was given one final test as easy
as the first. These results proved costly as well to the fixed-mindset group: the
average score dropped by 20 percent, while the average score of the effort-praised
group increased by 30 percent, a staggering 50 percent difference.
Further testing also uncovered another unsettling outcome: Children who
receive fixed praise view imperfections as shameful, so much so that the kids lied
them away. Dweck admits, “What’s so alarming is we took ordinary children and
made them into liars, simply by telling them they were smart.”
37
These results were so profound it was tested six additional times, each
yielding the same outcome. Furthermore, students praised with participation
trophies and “you are special” affirmations don’t do well later in education or in
life. Their reaction toward challenge, equally disheartening. They readily admit
cheating over studying. After failing, they simply look at someone else who did
worse just to make themselves feel better. And in countless study after study,
they flee from difficulty.
38
Remember my brush with cheaters in the Words with Friends game? Take a
look at the reviews for the cheating app allowing fixed-mindset types to flee from
difficulty:
I began using this app approximately one month ago and instantly became one of
the top players in my lodge!
All my friends seem to pretty much beat the pants off me. So having this app, or
anything I can use to even up the odds, is something that really makes me
happy.
39

---

Yeah, these are actual reviews for the cheating application. Makes me wonder
how much these players received fixed praise as children. Mommy said you’re a
genius. Teacher said you’re special! And now that the real world exposed the lie,
hearty challenges are not worth effort, and instead, cheating becomes cool.
Notice the words used as well: “top players” and “even up the odds.” Uh, no.
You’re not the top player and you didn’t even up the odds—
you fucking cheated
.
People with fixed mindsets aren’t spending time improving or developing
their skills; instead, they’re focused on proving, finding, or documenting their
talent or intelligence. (Comments section, anyone?) And in many cases like my
Words with Friends example, hiding their lack of it. Criticism, nonessential and
rejected. Obstacles, avoided. In fact, when a fixed mindset is presented with an
error, their brain activity is virtually dead, while the brains of those who thrive
on challenge are on fire.
40
And the success of others? That’s when you hear such
blathering as “luck” or “he knew the right people.”
The reality is, a fixed mindset is destroying our younger generation’s ability
to cope. Whatever they call it, “self-esteem building” builds nothing and instead
cripples dreams, creating fragile buttercups who can’t handle life's harsh realities.
Such evidence took center stage after the 2016 presidential election of Donald
Trump. After winning, thousands took the streets to whine, cry, and riot.
Professors canceled exams. Nationwide, campuses offered students free
counseling, therapy dogs, and Play-Doh.
Bruce Tulgan, the author of 
Not Everyone Gets a Trophy
(recommended
read) mentions the deficiencies of the millennial generation as seen by today’s
employers and recounts one employer’s assessment who said: “It’s very hard to
give them negative feedback without crushing their egos…they walk in thinking
they know more than they know.”
41
 Once they figure out that, nope, you’re not
special because you showed up—you’re only special when you earn it—they’re
crushed.
POLARIZER: THE KAIZEN PRINCIPLE
I have a confession. I’m not interested in fame or the spotlight. I hate public
speaking, interviews or whatever throws me on the public stage. I, by all
definitions, am a hardcore introvert. And yet, despite my “hate” for these
activities, I still do them. Why? Because I’m not very good at them. And to get
better at them, I have to do them. And so it goes with a 
growth mindset
.

---

While doing a gazillion podcasts won’t turn me into an extrovert, they do
help me improve. Extroversion and introversion have been proven to be
genetically predisposed; however, how one reacts to the predisposition is where
the coffee is perked. Had I been infected with a fixed mindset and the special
scam, I wouldn’t bother with interviews. Instead, I’d justify, “I’m an introvert
and not good at those.” Case closed.
However, how you approach your strengths and weaknesses comes down to
your mindset. Do you accept your characteristics as facts, rigid constructs of
existence, immovable and impervious to alteration? Or do you accept your
weaknesses as malleable and open for improvement? Once you become aware
that 
neuroplasticity
—your brain’s ability to form new neural connections—is
possible, intelligence and skill no longer await just the victors of the genetic
lottery.
We live in a spectacular time. The world’s encyclopedic knowledge is
accessible with a few simple keystrokes at Google. You can learn, discover, or
find anything. For example, here's a comment by a former wage slave:
After 5 years of college, I got a degree. Right out of the gate, I was at the top of
my field, earning a solid mid 5-figure salary. There was no upward mobility. I
started at the top, at age 23. I did that for 3 years. With free info from the Internet
and one $299 course, I learned everything I needed to know to make 3x that salary
in a year and a half. In another 5 years, that meager college-degree salary will be
so far in the rear view mirror that I won't even remember what life was like to
make so little. The Internet has largely rendered college, and education in general,
irrelevant. For those that want to learn anything, open your browser and get to
it.
41a
You see, you might not be the sharpest pencil in the box, but don't fret—
you're surrounded by pencil sharpeners. 
The world is already yours, but only if
you’re willing to go get it.