What is a Mindset? A mindset is a pattern of thinking or behavior of one or more individuals or groups of individuals. An individual acquires a mindset through interaction with the social, economic, and cultural environment. As a learned behavior, it exerts strong motivation (or demotivation) within an individual or group of individuals to carry on or adopt new attitudes and behaviors. There are two kinds of people (growth versus fixed) that distinguished then according to their attitudes towards failure.