Gladwell on “Success is the disease of me”

            When people think of success, mostly positive connotations of the word come to mind.  However, Carol S. Dweck reveals how success can possess negative connotations as well.  Throughout her book Mindet, the Dweck stresses what a major impact a difference in mindset can make.  According to Dweck, success is almost entirely dependent on mindset.  There are two different mindsets: the fixed mindset and the growth mindset.  When specifically referring to success and the examples shared by Dweck in chapter seven of mindset, a person with a fixed mindset can let success get to their head and this in turn can lead to poor decisions in the future.  A person with a growth mindset however can take their failures and use them to better their performance. 

 In chapter seven of Outliers, Dweck mentions coach John Wooden of the highly successful UCLA basketball team.  Wooden thinks that one is normally “infected by success” and perceives success with both positive and negative connotations.  Similarly, “Pat Riley,former coach of the championship Los Angeles Lakers team, calls [success] the ‘disease of me’” (Dweck, p.210, 2008).  Malcolm Gladwell, author of  Outliers would probably agree with Pat Riley and the possibility that success can be both positive and negative, but would likely disagree that success is more dependent on mindset than on opportunities.  Gladwell would probably argue that without certain opportunities, hard work, determination, and mindset may not prove quite as effective.

Personally, I believe that all things that lead to success such as opportunities, hard work, determination, and mindset have to exist together.  No one aspect should be more important than another because true success cannot be achieved without all four working in harmony.

Dweck, C. S. (2008). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Ballantine Books.

Gladwell, Malcolm (2009)  Outliers : the story of success  Penguin Book, Camberwell, Vic.