Attitude Is More Important Than IQ In Determining Success

This is what we can learn from Stanford University’s Carol Dweck’s research.

She has demonstrated empirically that “people’s core attitudes fall into one of two categories: A fixed mindset or a growth mindset.”

People with a fixed mindset believe that they are who they are and can’t change. They feel overwhelmed when they face a challenge or drawback.

On the contrary, individuals with a growth mindset are convinced that they can grow if they make the necessary efforts. They consider every challenge as an opportunity to learn. That’s why they surpass, even if their IQ is inferior, those with a fixed mindset.

Carol Dweck also notes that talent only gives confidence to a certain extent, that is to say, as long as the challenge isn’t too hard.

The determining factor to achieve success in life is how individuals manage setbacks. Carol Dweck explains how people with a growth mindset consider failure:

“Failure is information – we label it failure, but it’s more like, ‘This didn’t work, and I’m a problem solver, so I’ll try something else.'”

Carol Dweck’s theory of motivation resonates particularly with me. Indeed, I described my philosophy of life on Superception a little over a year ago as follows:

“It is captured in one sentence.

‘I never lose, I either win or I learn.’ This aphorism has always inspired me.

Life, to me, is an endless learning experience and hence is a limitless challenge to self-certainty. Each person is a being in perpetual development and can never, with very few exceptions, realize their full potential.

When one stops wanting to learn, wanting to grow, wanting to discover other people and other lands, wanting to discover themselves too, wanting to always challenge themselves, they stop wanting to live.

The quest to fulfill one’s own destiny is more vital than the rest of the body and mind.

Of course, setbacks that are too unfair and/or traumatizing don’t teach us anything. But, generally, we learn more from failure than success. And a failure from which we learn a valuable lesson can be a positive experience.“