11 Business Books Bill Gates Wants You to Read

5. “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” by Carol Dweck

Gates first encountered “Mindset” from an innovation education assembly held by his friend Nathan Myhvrold. He said this about the book, “Dweck’s research had a big impact on our thinking that day. And in the years since, Dweck and her research have helped my foundation colleagues and me understand more about the attitudes and habits that allow some students to persevere in school despite big challenges.” The book has a 4.4 rating on Amazon from 1,553 customer reviews with 66% of readers giving it 5 stars.

What is the book about? Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck reveals in this book that it’s not simply one’s talents and abilities that can make a person successful. What’s more important is how we approach it with either a fixed or growth mindset. She explains that having the right mindset can help students and professionals perform better.

In his review, Gates differentiates “fixed mindset” from “growth mindset” saying, “In experiment after experiment, Dweck has shown that the fixed mindset is a huge psychological roadblock—regardless of whether you feel you were blessed with talent or not. If you have the fixed mindset and believe you were blessed with raw talent, you tend to spend a lot of time trying to validate your “gift” rather than cultivating it.”

Meanwhile, “growth mindset” as explained by Gates is, “people with the growth mindset believe that basic qualities, including intelligence, can be strengthened like muscles…Instead, in Dweck’s words ‘they believe a person’s true potential is unknown (and unknowable); that it’s impossible to foresee what can be accomplished with years of passion, toil, and training.’”