BR 114: 9 Things Successful People Do Differently by Heidi Grant Halvorson

Category: 3 – SHELF it (All Categories are 1 – Read ASAP!, 2 – BUY it!, 3 – SHELF it, 4 – SOMEDAY it)

Comments: This is an HBR article expanded into a book. A very short, breezy read.

Top 3 learnings:

1. There are 2 kinds of optimism – unrealistic and realistic.

Realistic optimists have a belief that good things will happen but caveat it with the understanding that hard work would need to go in, and that bumps along the way are inevitable.

2. There are 2 ways of interpreting the world i.e. entity theory and incremental theory.

This is essentially the “fixed” and “fluid” mentality concept. Entity theorists believe that intelligence and ability are constant while incremental theorists believe that everything is malleable.

The easy test is what you do when things go wrong. Entity theorists respond with “maybe I’m not any good at this” while incremental theorists focus on improving their preparation, their strategy etc.

3. There are 2 types of goals – “be good” goals and “get better” goals “Be good” goals are those that focus on showcasing excellence. If it is achieved, that’s great. But if not, they kill our confidence.

Get better goals are those that focus on constant improvement and that allow us to fail.

Conclusion: Be a realistic optimist, an entity theorist and set “get better” goals. :-)