Summary of "Adopting a Creator Mindset" by Skip Downing

Skip Downing has divided his chapter "Adopting a Creator Mindset" into three major

parts. He discusses self-responsibility to highlight how it is a key to success, how it makes a

mindset of a creator and a victim, how it changes and impacts people from culture to culture,

and how it is tied with the choice a person makes in his career or life. In the first part,

Downing has referred to the opinion of authorities such as Richard Logan who has stated that

people in different ordeals such as in "concentration camps" take up upon themselves to

survive (41). Hence it is role of their self-responsibility in their ultimate survival. He also has

presented a case study of Debora for not passing her English 101, leading to his explanation

of the creator and victim mindset. Then he cites the most famous example of Rasa Parks. In

the second part, he discusses the cultural background in determining responsibility where the

major point he discusses is "locus of control," which becomes a central point when taking up

responsibility is seen through the lens of a culture (43). In the third part, he dilates upon the

choice and how human beings respond to it, terming self-responsibility a key to success which

creates a mindset that though faces cultural constraints, ultimately leads to final decision

making to a stimulus. Downing has not only highlighted the role of self-responsibility, but has

also discussed its limitations in culture to culture and then the choice a person makes to take

up the responsibility and win success in life.

In the first part, Downing says that self-responsibility is the key to success; be it

survival or success in education or in passing examination. He has referred to Richard Logan,

a psychologist, who studied successful people and concluded that they took up self-

responsibility of creating their own ways for their survival. He calls it "response-ability" by
which he means the ability a person has to respond to choices he makes or faces in life (41).

He argues that it is something like becoming active to face a challenge whose opposite is to sit

down passively and let things take the course a person has to chart (41). He cites the example

of Debora, his student who failed in English 101 thrice due to her passivity in taking up her

responsibility. She could not remove the word "but" from her conversation that became a

reason of her failure (42). This transformed her into a Victim mindset.

In the second part, Downing has discussed a victim and a creator mindset. He says that

a person adopts a victim mindset when he does not take up responsibility of doing things and

make a conscious choice of sitting still. He then creates a collection of beliefs which he calls

"mindset" and becomes a victim of this mindset that Downing calls "Victim mindset" (42). It

makes people stop acting on the choices and rather become passive. However, on the other

pole, he says is a Creator mindset that means people find various options and adopt any one of

them to see change in their lives. In other words, he says it is taking up personal responsibility

that is akin to creating a new path. In this connection, he cites the example of Rosa Parks, who

became an "inspiriting example" of a creator mindset (43).

In the third part, Downing discusses the impacts of culture on the responsibility and

outcomes. He cites the authority of a psychologist Julian Rotter who says that there is a center

of location or "locus of control" in every culture that controls people's mind about the outside

forces (43). In some cultures, people think that destiny is in their own hands that is called "the

internal locus of control" (43). However, in some other cultures, it is found in the cultural

signs such as in Muslim culture who utters "God willing" when they are to start or defer some

work. These culture trends according to him leads to determinism and self-determination and
the issue of taking personal responsibility. He cites the example of William Henley as a good

point to urge the reads to become a master of his destiny (44).

This leads him to discuss the idea of choice whether a person has choice in his life and

whether he has the power to make this choice. He says that a choice makes a person to make a

critical decision making. When there is a stimulus, he says, a person needs to respond to it and

if he is of a Victim mindset, he would complain and make excuses but a person of a Creator

mindset would pause, think and then make a decision or find some other option (45). In other

words, a person blaming others has a Victim mindset and a person blaming himself often

takes up self-responsibility and meets success. He is called a Creator mindset.

One of the parts of this chapter where culture is concerned relates to a friend of mine. I

have found out that he often complains of difficult tasks assigned to him here in the United

States. I would not point out his name. But I have found him either blaming his professors or

his friend who, he says, does not teach him when he is with him. However, his that specific

friend has told me once that the complaining friend always make an excuse that he is going to

for shopping or that he has not time right now and he would study later on weekends or that

he is going to sleep. This shows that he has a victim mindset.

Works Cited

Downing, Skip. On Course: Strategies for Creating Success in College and in Life. 4th ed.

Boston: Cengage publishing,2004. 41-46. Print.