Quotes from Carol Dweck

He didn't ask for mistake-free games. He didn't demand that his players never lose. He asked for full preparation and full effort from them. "Did I win? Did I lose? Those are the wrong questions. The correct question is: Did I make my best effort?" If so, he says, "You may be outscored but you will never lose.

We like to think of our champions and idols as superheroes who were born different from us. We don't like to think of them as relatively ordinary people who made themselves extraordinary.

Picture your brain forming new connections as you meet the challenge and learn. Keep on going.

So what should we say when children complete a task—say, math problems—quickly and perfectly? Should we deny them the praise they have earned? Yes. When this happens, I say, "Whoops. I guess that was too easy. I apologize for wasting your time. Let's do something you can really learn from!

I don't mind losing as long as I see improvement or I feel I've done as well as I possibly could.

Mindset change is not about picking up a few pointers here and there. It's about seeing things in a new way. When people...change to a growth mindset, they change from a judge-and-be-judged framework to a learn-and-help-learn framework. Their commitment is to growth, and growth take plenty of time, effort, and mutual support.

I believe ability can get you to the top," says coach John Wooden, "but it takes character to keep you there.… It's so easy to … begin thinking you can just 'turn it on' automatically, without proper preparation. It takes real character to keep working as hard or even harder once you're there. When you read about an athlete or team that wins over and over and over, remind yourself, 'More than ability, they have character.'

it's not always the people who start out the smartest who end up the smartest.

So what should we praise? The effort, the strategies, the doggedness and persistence, the grit people show, the resilience that they show in the face of obstacles, that bouncing back when things go wrong and knowing what to try next. So I think a huge part of promoting a growth mindset in the workplace is to convey those values of process, to give feedback, to reward people engaging in the process, and not just a successful outcome.

What's more, it's not as though the fixed mindset wants to leave gracefully. If the fixed mindset has been controlling your internal monologue, it can say some pretty strong thing to you...The fixed mindset once offered you a refuge from that very feeling, and it offers it to you again. Don't take it.

Think about what you want to look back and say. Then choose your mindset.

What ANY person in the world can learn, almost ALL people in the world can learn. If provided with proper learning conditions.

you aren't a failure until you start to blame. What

We now have a workforce full of people who need constant reassurance and can't take criticism.

the view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life

Effort gives meaning to life.

Beware of success. It can knock you into a fixed mindset.

If life were one long grade school, women would be the undisputed rulers of the world.

An organization might embody a fixed mindset, conveying that employees either 'have it' or they don't: We called this a 'culture of genius.' Or it might embody more of a growth mindset, conveying that people can grow and improve with effort, good strategies, and good mentoring: We call this a 'culture of development.

When you learn new things, these tiny connections in the brain actually multiply and get stronger. The more that you challenge your mind to learn, the more your brain cells grow. Then, things that you once found very hard or even impossible- like speaking a foreign language or doing algebra- seem to become easy. The result is a stronger, smarter brain.