Business Start-up Training Programme - Resource Book - Growth Mindset

Sep 14, 2026

Business Start-up Training Programme Resource Book Section 1 introduces Growth Mindset as a progressive way to view abilities, emphasizing challenge, effort, and persistence. It contrasts Growth Mindset with a fixed mindset that avoids mistakes, demands perfection, and limits imagination. The section explains how to change mindset habits, frames entrepreneurship as breaking comfort with conventional fixed-job thinking, and provides clear signs to spot fixed-minded behavior. It also links emerging entrepreneurs to learning from setbacks and feedback to sustain unstoppable effort.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages383

Reading Time16 h 5 min

AccessFree to download

Growth Mindset

Introduction

Change our Mindset

Ask Yourself, On Which Side You Would Stay and Why?

How to Spot a Fixed Minded Person

Growth Mindset of Emerging Entrepreneurs

Compare the Difference

Business Start-up Training Programme Resource Book CONTENTS 1. Growth Mindset............................................................................................................................. 3 2. Leadership Skills ........................................................................................................................ 23 3. Communication Skills .................................................................................................................... 71 4. Interpersonal Relation Skills......................................................................................................... 99 5. Decision Making ........................................................................................................................... 131 6. Counselling Skills ......................................................................................................................... 165 7. Productivity and Time Management ......................................................................................... 183 8. Customer Care ............................................................................................................................. 212 9. Marketing and Sales Skills ......................................................................................................... 240 10. Practical Bookkeeping .............................................................................................................. 289 11. Costing and Pricing Skills ......................................................................................................... 352 Business Start-up Training Programme 1 . Growth Mindset R E S O U R C E B O O K Page 3 Business Start-up Training Programme Introduction The idea of Growth Mindset is about the progressive way people think about their own abilities and talents. The idea was initially introduced by professor Carol Dwacks from Stanford University. She emphasises that, those with a growth mindset do not simply rely on“talent” but instead face challenges by digging in, working hard and doing whatever it takes to create success. The growth mindset inspires risk-taking, experimentation, the willingness to stumble, and even “fail” and to persist. They are on a life-long journey of growth and learning and they are able to trust that they will come out ahead. This is in contrast to the “fixed” mindset where people hold onto their talent for dear life asthe proof of whether they can be successful and are afraid to make mistakes for fear that this will unmask their lack of talent and intelligence. Those with a fixed mindset hold themselves back and avoid challenge, feeling that they have to be “perfect” or else they are failures. -Professor and Researcher-professor Carol Dwack Change our Mindset Most people addicted to live a life with fixed mindset because it much easier to spent. That’s why we don’t see many, many great leaders around us that much in our country. Most importantly that is how our society have trained our mindsets, just to be comfortable with some small tasks and if it still feels difficult we can complain, resist or even protest against. The reason is we are trained to develop a fixed mindset that limits our imagination and to drive us to the find a conventional job in the given system. The way an entrepreneur thinks is totally different from someone who keep doing a 8 hour job. Being an entrepreneur is to get rid of this fixed mindset and develop a growth mind set within. Most of amazingly successful entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka and around the world are not really university graduates or smart people from rich families. In most cases they are from poor families and perhaps are from rural localities. The most common denominator that can be found is the Growth Mindset they have built throughout their early stages of life despite the failure in formal education. R E S O U R C E B O O K Page 4 Bus

FAQs

What does Growth Mindset focus on?

Growth Mindset focuses on the belief that abilities and talents can be developed through effort, practice, and persistence. It encourages taking risks, experimenting, and learning from failure.

How does a fixed mindset differ from a growth mindset?

A fixed mindset treats talent as limited and unchangeable, leading people to avoid challenges and fear mistakes. Growth mindset instead treats failure as a chance to learn, improve, and pivot.

What are common signs of a fixed-minded person?

Fixed-minded people often reject challenges, see failure as permanent, interpret feedback as personal attacks, and prefer fixed jobs and fixed salaries. They also avoid testing new ideas when conditions feel risky.

Sep 14, 2026

Uploaded by Chloe Bennett