Unearthing My Growth Mindset. Though I admire its qualities and the super powers it grants me, the transition to achieving its gifts were challenging. Though instrumental in my growth, I was not always so growth mindset focused. I wanted things now, I wanted them easy. What changed? 

Like rice is to chicken rice, or olive oil to pasta; effort is perhaps the most crucial ingredient in growth. You can’t just talk about it, plan for it and then not do the work. Doing the work is about 80% of what makes us successful. 

And here’s where the growth mindset really kicked in. Realising that work does not always have to be hard. There are different ways to go about doing good work. What is the intended result? Why am I doing this task, what is the bigger goal that I am trying to achieve? Am I working for the sake of working, just to keep busy or am I trying to achieve something meaningful that will create value for me and others? 

This was perhaps the greatest obstacle to overcome in my journey. 

I remember the first time I started my company and tried to get clients. I would write email after email, optimise the content, optimise my slide decks, create finished programs wanting to sell. No matter how hard I worked my results were lacklustre. It took me some time to realise, more so to admit to myself that what I was doing was clearly not working. MY goal was to get clients, not to just write emails. 

So I came up with a different idea. One that I did not want to do because I was afraid of it. Cold-calling. 

“You can’t just call up a big name hotel, brand or business; The Ritz Carlton, BMW, The Shangri La and ask to speak to someone in charge??”, or so I thought. But whats the alternative, keep emailing and getting nowhere? 

And so I took a deep breath and decided, let’s play a game. Lets experiment. As Prince would say; “lets go crazy”. But before I picked up the phone, I had one last mental hurdle; I had to quieten the little voice inside my head, begging me to not reach beyond what I know. I asked that voice, whats the worst that could happen? It provided me with a strong litany of very valid reasons and scenarios detailing my destruction. But the destruction of what? My business or my ego? After a minute, I realised that I could probably live with most of these happenings and made the calls., 

It took me some time to reach the right people but, when I did, most, if not all were friendly, cordial and even interested in my products. They were open to listening and some, including the guys from BMW, even welcomed me to their office and allowed me to pitch. 

Not every pitch worked out, but, having the courage to start gave me the confidence to stretch myself even further. And that’s what I have been doing ever since. 

How did growth mindsets become my bane? Easy. Having seen the benefits and propagating it to everyone in my family, now when I say I can’t do something or I don’t want to try something, my wife asks me, are you being fixed mindset right now? Aren’t you all about the growth? 

Oh boy, whats a man supposed to do but grow!