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Marks vs Mindset| Why intelligence and talent are not the sure ingredients of success| Why mindset is more important than marks|

As per research, children succeed through traits like determination and grit. Famous Psychologist Angela Duckworth has popularized the idea that diligence and perseverance play a far bigger role in success than do just about any other qualities. The smartest person in the room, she argues, will never do as well as the one who works the hardest. The student who keeps doing her homework, the scientist who never gives up, are the ones who go the farthest. Also, according to Albert Binet, the inventor of the IQ test, said IQ test was not meant to summarize children’s unchangeable intelligence. He even asserted that with practice, training, and above all, method, we manage to increase our attention, our memory, our judgment, and literally to become more intelligent than we were before.

There are many other traits that psychologists and neuroscientists after years of experiment and research on most successful people, companies, leaders have found are important to be successful. And to surprise intelligence and talent are not the sure ingredients of success. It’s the mindset, that makes them reach where they are. They asserted intelligence and talent if not gifted can be cultivated and learned.

1. ) Growth Mindset- According to renowned psychologist and author of million bestseller copy ‘Mindset’ Dr. Carol - people mainly have two mindsets- 'Fixed mindset and Growth mindset'. "Fixed mindset people believe success is about proving and you are smart or talented. People with this mindset try to prove that they are smart or special even superior. When asked them - When do you feel smart? So many of them talked about times they felt like a special person, someone who was different from and better than others. While, Growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts, strategies, and help from others. They believe that a person’s true potential is unknown that it’s impossible to foresee what can be accomplished with years of passion, toil, and learning.”

2. )Delay gratification- A legendary study was done by eminent psychologist Walter Mischel at Standford University in the 1970s known as the marshmallow test. In this test, children were shown a tray with marshmallows and asked they can have their treat now, but if they don’t eat it now and eat after he comes back they can have two of them. After the test, he found that the ones who resisted the lure of the sweet had higher scores on measures of executive control, particularly the reallocation of attention. It allows them to keep their focus on their goal in the future and not on instant gratification.

3. ) Practice- Practice- Practice- According to well-known psychologist and performance expert Anders Erricson, there is no such thing as innate brilliance. Genius, he asserts is simply the result of years of hard work and deliberate practice. Ericsson claimed practice likewise the key for chess grandmasters and professional violinists. Beyond a certain minimum threshold, talent, or general intelligence, simply does not matter.

4. )Grit-As mentioned above, the celebrated psychologist Angela Duckworth, found that grit - ‘the attitude of never giving up’ is one of the main traits of many successful entrepreneurs and famous people. She asserts that it’s this trait that lets them walk even when they fail because they are not ready to give up till the time they reach their goal.

5.) Self-control- In a daunting ambitious project, 1037 children all the babies born over twelve months were studied intensively in childhood and then tracked down decades later by a team assembled from several countries. The team represented many disciplines, each with its perspective on that key maker for self-awareness and self-control. The better their self-control in childhood, the better the kids were doing in their thirties. They had sounder health, were more successful financially. In fact, for financial success, self-control in childhood proved a stronger predictor than either IQ or social call of the family of origin.

Mostly all children after school/college get a job and work with people of the same IQ then what makes the difference, who go the farthest- it’s the people with the above qualities who go the farthest and reach the highest. We currently focus on marks. Yet, if I ask you how many of you remember Pythagoras theorem hardly any of you, though you might have scored full marks in our report card that time(thanks to our working memory that can hold information temporarily). We focus on our report cards that lie somewhere in our cupboards. We don’t focus on our brain, our mindset that stays with us forever and responsible for our behavior, our performance, and eventually results in our life. Mindset can be changed, beliefs can be changed, brain too can be changed, what we need is to focus on the right thing. Don’t just focus on their marks report, focus on your child’s mindset report too. Because, in the course of life, it's not their marks who will take them far away, it's their mindset.