Jerry Colonna: evaluation

Transcript context

…All this, some people may think of as this whole idea of growth mindset. I know that you're not a big fan of this term, that it's used in a harmful way a lot of times. Can you just talk about that why you find that growth mindset as a concept isn't necessarily useful? Here's what I have a problem with. First of all, having a growth mindset is a very, very helpful thing. What I have a problem is in having and how we can turn a notion like a growth mindset into a fixed mindset, which is, it's this funny little trick the ego does, and the ego says, "Okay, well, this is a growth mindset. Oh, this is not a growth mindset. Okay, then this is good. This is not good. This is bad. This is..." What Buddhism has taught me is that everything's falling apart all the time even our growth mindset. When we get too fixed on the proper way to do things, we're setting ourselves up for attachment and therefore suffering. So if you can hold something like a mindset loosely with that attachment, go for it. Have a blast. Enjoy it. But the minute you start to nail it down to the floor and say this is the way it ought to be, I ought to always have a growth mindset, you've become fixed. And that's what the ego does. To be more explicit about it from a business context for example, the great business writer Peter Senge says, "It is virtually impossible to challenge the assumptions that made you rich in the first place." So think about it in our experience of starting a business. We have what the Zen Buddhist would say, beginner's mind, all things are possible. And then, we experience, you were talking about it a little before, a little bit of success, and the ego, which is so terrified of not having success, start to say, "Aha, this is the way to do it. " And then, we start to deviate from that because life happens and then the anxiety starts. So the question is, how do you hold a growth mindset loosely knowing that you ought to stay present to the world as it is, respond to the changing dynamics, figure out what's next because that's the growth. So put succinctly, stay attached to the growth and hold mindset a little loosely. I love that. It reminds me of advice. I did a meditation retreat once, and there's always a sense with Buddhism, and it's interesting how often Buddhism and advice from Buddhist teachings comes up on this podcast by the way.…

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