Choose A Path

There are two people who come from the same back ground and coincidence, their names are both Wes Moore. You can tell that both Wes Moores have a troubling environment surrounding them. Although both Wes Moores come from the same background, they both head down two completely different paths of one another. The overall central difference between the two Wes Moores is a fixed and growth mindset which is a concept from Brainology. The author Wes is the one with a growth mindset, which basically means he won't settle for anything less than what he can achieve. He is from an area where it is meant for him to fail in life, but he doesn't allow that to stop him from achieving great things in his life. Wes goes through some rough choices that allowed him to realize he needs to change. Wes started hanging around the wrong people and letting them effect some bad choices to be made. Eventually his mother had enough and didn't want to see her boy go in the wrong direction so she sent him away to military school, it was a rude awakening for Wes, but it paid off in the long run. The other Wes has a fixed mindset. A fixed mindset is where you allow people or things to tell you who you are going to be or who you are. He is from the same area as the Author Wes, but he allows the situation to choose who he is going to be instead of him deciding and working to change that himself. He had anger issues and let it get to him over little things like trying to stab a kid for punching him over a football game. His environment definitely influenced altercations like this. His neighborhood wasn't the best because of what people lived there and what their actions spoke of. Wes followed in his brother, Tony's, footsteps. Wes began to sell drugs because he wanted new things and had a kid at a young age. Both of the Moores ended up in such different places in life because they separately decided on who they wanted to become with a fixed mindset for one and a growth mindset for the other.
The Author Wes Moore is a confused child still learning what's right and wrong. He doesn't understand what death is, so at the end of chapter one, “Is Daddy Coming with Us?” when he looks into the casket of his dead father, he thinks he is asleep and wondering when his dad is going to wake up. After the death of Westly, Wes's grandparents offered to move Joy and her kids in with them to help provide and nurture them. Once they moved to the Bronx, Wes played basketball with kids bigger and better than him, but he didn't let that intimidate him, so he stayed and made new friends. Wes started making some bad decisions, but before it could go any worse, his mother sent him away to military school and allowed Wes to clean up his act. Of course Wes wasn't okay with it at first and tried to run away. He talked to his mom and she made him realize it is what's best for him.
The other Wes Moore grew up without a father as well. He has a brother who is 6 years older than him, Tony, who is a well-known drug dealer in Baltimore. Even though Tony doesn't do the right things, he wants his brother to not be like him and be successful. Wes and his mother live in a rather harsh area. He has 2 friends he hangs out with, Woody and White Boy. Wes gets into some trouble being rough during a football game which lead to him getting punched in the face splitting his lip open by a kid on the other team. Once that happened he remembered what his brother said, “send a message.” So they won't ever think about doing something like that again, so he ran into the house, grabbed a knife, and went to go send a message. He ended up trying to send the message in front of cops who took him to jail before being released hours later by his brother Tony and Tony's Father. The other Wes had a shot to not follow in his brother's footsteps, but allowed the situation to take him there.
A big factor to separate the Moores, was that the author Wes had a lot of support from his family, and the other Wes didn't have any at all. It is a big difference having people support you in life to them not. The other Wes could have turned out to be a great person, but didn't have the support and motivation to do so. Author Wes is lucky he had the people to motivate him like they did because otherwise, how would he have turned out to be?
Charles Duhigg writes in The Power of Habit about the cue-routine-reward process. This would relate to author Wes by Cue, realizing away at military school he needs to get right. Routine, every day they would be set on a routine to do at the school. Reward, his mother and himself were rewarded with an improved human being. His mother wanted the bet for her son as well as their family, so they went through a lot to get him to that school. Pays out, it was worth it. His growth mindset allowed him to set high goals for him to achieve because of the support he got and him deciding for himself, he can achieve more. The other Wes, the Cue-Routine-Reward process didn't benefit him. Wes would say it did because of the money he was making, but the way he made his money wasn't good at all. Cue would be his customers. The routine would be him making his sells (drugs). Reward would of course be the money. He is so set on settling for less and choosing the easy way out because it's easier on him to do this, then actually get a job. His fixed mindset allows him to make the easy way out choices and drop out of school just in the 9th grade.
The Outliers had 10,000 hours as a relationship with The Other Wes Moore. The author Wes probably spent over 10,000 hours at the military school, that helped him practice his better ways. His growth mindset allowed him to buckle down and do what he had to do to achieve his goals. The other Wes Moore had spent at least 10,000 hours selling drugs throughout his life. Since he did it for so long and got good at it, his mindset was set on it. Why stop? He was bringing in good money and it was second nature to him so his fixed mindset allowed him to be stuck on selling drugs. The 10,000 hour relationship is where you spend that amount of time at one thing to master or perfect what you're doing.
Brainology is the best thing to compare to both Wes Moores on why they became so different from one another. Mindset relates to habit as well because depending on what mindset you have; you choose whether to break that habit or not. Other people can help you, but it's your choice to listen and do it. Brainology states that a fixed mindset is something already set in place and you won't allow yourself to change it because the structure in your brain. A growth mindset allows you to grow in life and you're in command unlike a fixed mindset. The Moores both started at the same place but ended up in two completely opposite paths because of their mindset which is such a shame because if only the Other Wes wouldn't have allowed his background life choose his path who knows if he could have turned out to be someone great? The author Wes is an inspiration to me because just like him, I have and still am growing up in a terrible environment family and location wise. As well as he did, I am not letting that affect me, and I am choosing my own path.