Formula for Success: The Powerful Teachings from Carol Dweck and Angela Duckworth

“Becoming is better than being.” – Carol Dweck

“…some people see a wall, and assume that’s the end of their journey. Others see it, and decide that it’s just the beginning.” – Angeline Trevena

We live in a society that’s in many ways obsessed with “natural” talent.  Trial lawyers are particularly prone to this thinking. So many times in my career, I’ve heard colleagues referred to as a “natural trial attorney,” or a “born prosecutor.”  This mindset reinforces the widely-held belief that you either have it or you don’t, and if you don’t, no amount of hard work will get you there.  But this type of thinking is truly corrosive to your self-esteem and your ability to move forward in your life.  Not only that, but the findings of two recent brilliant researchers – Carol Dweck and Angela Duckworth – indicate that IQ (which many consider to be an indicator of natural talent) is not the biggest determinant of success. 

The biggest determinants of success are mindset and grit. 

Let’s first talk about mindset.  If you can shift your focus from whether you are naturally talented or have a high IQ to whether you’re putting in effort, growing, and learning, your life will change.  This is in fact the premise of Carol Dweck’s book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Dweck says that contrary to many people’s beliefs, intelligence is not set in stone.  But more importantly, focusing on the question of whether someone is naturally talented leads to corrosive thinking, and less long-term success.  

Dweck’s book is an in-depth look at the difference between what she calls the fixed mindset and the growth mindset.  People with the fixed mindset, she posits, believe that intelligence is set from birth and there’s no way to change it; they believe that natural ability and talent – instead of effort – are what makes someone successful.  Not surprisingly, this belief causes even literal geniuses to shy away from challenges.  Why?  Because once you’re classified as intelligent, smart, and high-achieving, the only direction to fall is down, so why risk it?  

People with the fixed mindset see failure as an indictment against themselves; they self-identify with failure.  They think, “my failure at this task means that I am a failure.”  Because of this damaging mindset, they see in challenges the scary possibility of failure instead of the possibility of growth and learning. 

Conversely, Dweck explains, individuals with the growth mindset see intelligence not as fixed or static, but as a baseline that can be improved through effort, experience, and the gaining of knowledge.  They see failure not as evidence of unintelligence or as a sign that they should give up, but as an opportunity to learn from mistakes and grow.  Instead of self-identifying with their failures, instead they think, “I failed but I am not a failure.”  For those with the growth mindset, hard work is accepted as a necessary ingredient to achieving success, and therefore they expect failure, and thrive when it happens.

As Dweck states in her Ted Talk, people with the growth mindset believe in the “power of yet” instead of the “tyranny of now.”  She explains that those with the growth mindset believe that when they fail, they just haven’t achieved yet.  They are up for challenges, and believe that with effort, strategy, and sustained engagement, they will succeed if they persist. 

Those stuck in the “tyranny of now” focus on the immediate result and if it’s failure, they don’t see the use in trying again.  They constantly compare themselves to others and why wouldn’t they?  They believe that some people just “have it” (natural intelligence, artistic talent, or athletic ability) and those who don’t are doomed to be failures.  

In fact, studies have also shown that intelligence is not necessarily correlated with professional success.  In the early 1920s, psychologist Lewis Terman studied that 1,500 children between the ages of eight and 12 who had genius-level IQs, and watched as they grew older.  Although the average income of Terman's subjects as adults was higher than the national average, and two-thirds had earned college degrees, Terman concluded that not all of the subjects were very successful and most turned out no better than average.  He in fact concluded that “intelligence and achievement were far from perfectly correlated.” He found that those who were the most successful exhibited traits such as self-confidence and hard work. In other words, they had grit.

More recently, Angela Duckworth, author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, researched students ranging from those enrolled in Chicago public schools to West Point with the sole purpose of determining who is successful and why.  What she found was that the most significant predictor of success isn’t IQ, social intelligence, good looks, or physical health.  It’s grit.  Duckworth defines grit as passion and perseverance for long term goals.  Basically, hard work and commitment.  Not giving up in spite of failures.  In her Ted Talk, when talking about how people can develop grit, she admits that it’s difficult to know, but says the best answer she can give for how to develop grit is to develop the growth mindset, and she actually references Carol Dweck’s research. 

The formula for success is therefore not, IQ = Success, but rather

Growth mindset —> Grit —> Success

This formula makes perfect sense because it shows the power of your thoughts and beliefs.  If you believe that nothing you can do will make a difference, and you’re stuck with what you have, you will make no efforts to learn, grown, and pursue your dreams.  Conversely, in a sense, your own natural talents become irrelevant if you believe in the power of thought work; your own mindset about your abilities and your capacity to grow is more important than the cold hard facts. 

Dweck says: “As you begin to understand the fixed and growth mindsets, you will see exactly how one thing leads to another—how a belief that your qualities are carved in stone leads to a host of thoughts and actions, and how a belief that your qualities can be cultivated leads to a host of different thoughts and actions, taking you down an entirely different road.”  I love this quote because it is line with what I believe about our thoughts and beliefs - that they cause our actions and subsequently the results in our lives. 

Which mindset you adopt is a choice, and you are fully capable of consciously adopting a growth mindset even if you’ve gone your whole life with a fixed mindset.  Our culture, even our schools, Dweck argues, promote the fixed mindset.  But, our thoughts and beliefs are choices.  I am not saying this process will be easy or fast.  Changing your thoughts and creating new neural pathways never is – but it’s well-worth the effort.  The most important factor in whether your intelligence and abilities can change is your belief that they can change.  So go out there and try, fail, succeed, and most of all believe.