Connections Between Mindset and Outliers

     Mindset and Outliers are two books written by two different authors with two different platforms but they share an underlying theme, success.  Mindset is written by Carol Dweck; Outliers is written by Malcolm Gladwell.  The overall idea of Mindset is a person can achieve success if their mindset is correct.  The overall idea of Outliers is success happens to those under special circumstances.

     In Mindset, Dweck describes two mindsets: fixed and growth.  People with a fixed mindset believe you need “to prove yourself over and over.”  People with a growth mindset believe “your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts” (Dweck, 2006, p.6-7).  Throughout her book, Dweck shows multiple scenarios where people with the growth mindset fared better over the fixed mindset people.  She used examples of athletes, students, children, and coaches.  She illustrated her point that by having the growth mindset, a person can grow their mind and learn what they need or want to learn.  Then, the person achieves success.  However, a person who stays in the fixed mindset will not succeed to the fullest.  They will shy away from opportunities like a vampire in sunlight (Dweck, 2006).

     In Outliers, Gladwell describes how people who have succeeded were born under special circumstances.  Many successful people were born within a time frame to where a new invention would be within their reach, like computers or railroads.  Many of those successful people Gladwell mentioned also had money in their family.  Money is a strong indicator of college education, and poor people, no matter how smart, usually do not go to or do well in college, like Christ Langan for example.  Gladwell also describes how once people found something they love, they worked at it constantly.  By the time they are an expert at it, they had worked on it for 10,000 hours.  The practice helped them improve, and they succeeded in life (Gladwell, 2008).

     Gladwell and Dweck agree on one thing, that success takes practice and special circumstances.  Dweck did not insinuate that people were born under lucky stars like Gladwell.  She did however indicate that in order to succeed the most a person has to have a growth mindset, which could be considered a special circumstance.  Gladwell skirted around the idea but never used the term “growth mindset.”  He commented that people must take opportunities given to them to succeed.  Dweck would say that a person with a growth mindset would take the opportunities allotted to them because they would not be afraid of failure.  Gladwell also proposed the 10,000 hour rule; the stars of the success stories had practiced 10,000 hours on whatever they were good at.  If a person practiced 10,000 hours on something, they probably did have a growth mindset to begin with.  A person with a fixed mindset would not be able to work that much on something that may give them errors or failure in return.  Dweck seems to believe that there are no naturals, so she too would say that people need to practice in order to succeed, like Michael Jordan did for example (Dweck, 2006; Gladwell, 2008).

     In conclusion, the books Mindset and Outliers were wrote by two different authors and probably for two different purposes, but they share an underlying premise, success.  Gladwell and Dweck both would say a person who wants success needs to have a growth mindset and practice at the field they hope to succeed in.  Gladwell and Dweck say this differently, but overall they both mean the same thing: take every opportunity given unto you, set your mind on your goal, and go for it.

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Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Ballantine Books.

Gladwell, M. (2008). Outliers. New York City: Little, Brown and Company.