< PreviousIn my last article, I wrote about preparing for the future by thinking innovatively and embracing a growth mindset. I real- ize now that I may have put the cart before the horse by not discussing in greater detail the concept of a “growth mindset” (and its inverse, the “fixed mindset”) and why it’s important to be in one and how one can cultivate it. The concept of Growth and Fixed mindset was first set forth by Carol S. Dweck, PhD in her seminal work ”Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” about how our mindset im- pacts our ability to succeed more than our innate talents. She exam- ines how children who were praised for their intelligence and talent were far less successful than children who were recognized for their discipline, commitment, and hard work. When a child is praised for innate abilities, it can have a reverse impact by dis- couraging continued hard work and creates what Dweck refers to as a “fixed mindset.” This mindset holds that our abilities and intelligence are fixed and that, to some degree, and we unconsciously accept that effort is less important than natural ability and we take failure as the end of the game, not as the starting point. The fixed mindset perspective can be very self-limiting and can bring out our in- ner negative voice to excuse our per- ceived failure. As a result, we may only gravitate to those ac- tivities where we nat- urally excel, can be easily accomplished or where we feel assured that the hard work won’t tarnish a preconceived no- tion about us. When we aren’t afraid of being judged, we may work hard as if to prove to the world and ourselves that we were underestimated but then give up when faced with a any signifi- cant setback or failure. A growth mindset recognizes that our brains and abilities are inherently fluid and “neuroplastic,” meaning we can grow the neurons in our brain to actually become smarter and more capable. Dweck found that the kids who were rewarded for hard work had greater perseverance, higher positivity and more tolerance for “failure” than kids who were recognized for being smart, talented and possessing innate abilities. These growth-minded kids were more willing to push through the challenges to achieve greater suc- cess. This is true for adults as well.6 This growth mindset was taken a step further by Angela Duckworth, PhD as described in her NY Times bestselling book “Grit,” where she re- searched people she defined as having “Grit” – those who were particularly persistent and passionate to achieve despite setbacks and when other might have given up She found that feedback, deliberate/purposeful prac- tice, and letting go of a preconceived notion of natural talent/ability can in- fluence our grit. She found that by vi- sualizing “vivid and concert plans” to carry out a desired outcome can help us to become more gritty and growth- minded. Creating specific goals with actionable plans can move us forward and hold us accountable to achieve greater results. While it’s important to have that big lofty end goal (“BGE”) but as I’ve written before, you need to know to have a map to get there. Break the BGE into smaller mile- stones so you can accomplish some- thing every day/week/month to move you closer to your BGE. Connect your passion, determination and purpose to that goal. This is how you embrace a growth mindset and develop your grit. Perhaps one of the harder elements of shifting from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset is letting go of those self-limiting beliefs (“SLBs”) that question our abilities to succeed at something that we may have failed at previously. .. These SLBs hold us back from fully embracing our full potential potential. The challenge and reward for building grit is all about holding the bar for ourselves higher than we think we can reach—and then KNOWING that pushing our- self may result in falling down. It’s this feedback that allows us to retool, reframe and re-imagine. Think of the scientist who does experiment after experiment. If one doesn’t work, it’s a process of elimination, not failure, it’s a methodology to hone to excellence, not to measure failure! When you hear your inner voice asking, “Why do YOU think you can do that?” Here’s your opportunity to step into the mindset of “nothing ven- tured, nothing gained.” Remember the saying, “If you believe you can or can’t do something, you’re absolutely right” and “If at first you don’t suc- ceed, you need to just keep trying”.” ELLEN COHEN | Legal Coach Ellen Cohen, JD, CPCC, PCC., is an executive coach and attorney. She is certified by CTI and International Coach Federation and is an enhanced practitioner in Conversational Intelligence (CIQ). She focuses her coaching on senior executives and lawyers in law firms and corporations to Envision their highest potential, Breakthrough mental glass ceilings and Cultivate innovation and possibilities. Prior to becoming a coach, Ellen spent 20+ years as an entertain- ment attorney at Disney, Showtime, Sony, Fox and Microsoft. She received her BA from Brandeis University and her JD from Emory University School of Law. To find out more: ebccoaching.com or linkedin.com/in/ebccoaching. What’s a Growth Mindset, Why Do I Need It and How Can I Cultivate One? ATTORNEY AT LAW MAGAZINE · LOS ANGELES · VOL. 6 NO. 3 10Attorney of the Month W hen your life has already taken you to the four cor- ners of the earth, what else is there to do as an at- torney but practice in them? That is the feeling of Attorney of the Month Petro Kostiv, who has answered the call to serve in almost as many nations as he has specialties. Kostiv—whose practice groups include immigration, employment, personal injury and trans- portation law—has offices around the globe. “The law is an international commitment with which, we as at- torneys and citizens of the world, must constantly engage ourselves in court, in our studies, in our minds, and most importantly in our hearts,” he says. “Law is not a domestic affair.” No one knows that better than Kostiv, who fled Ukraine at 18 when it was overrun with mafia and general lawlessness, in what he de- scribes was a “very difficult moment” for his native country. Raised by his grandmother, Kostiv’s parents were already in the United States, which afforded him the opportunity to get a green card. Not speaking a word of English, he enrolled at Long Beach City College in an “extremely basic” ESL class. From there, he says, it took about a year and a half to reach college-level English and achieve an associate’s degree not only in the language but on it. “It was quite an effort to learn English, and even harder to get a degree in English Literature,” he says. “I insisted on taking as many English classes as I could, including Shakespeare, modern American literature and the works of J.M. Coetzee, a South African author who won the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature.” Petro Kostiv Lands of Opportunity By Sarah Torres Photographed by Hugh Williams ATTORNEY AT LAW MAGAZINE · LOS ANGELES · VOL. 6 NO. 3 12English was not the only language he mas- tered there, and professors were not the only teachers. “I am a big soccer fan and an active player,” he says. “When I was playing for Long Beach City college, 90 percent of my teammates were Hispanics, and I was curious what they were saying. Some words were pretty colloquial as they were used during soccer games and not so much in classroom, so I wanted to make sure I learn both Spanishes—the formal and the Spanish from la calle. ” From community college, Kostiv went on to University of California Berkeley under a full- ride Regents Scholarship. “It was quite an accomplishment consid- ering I didn’t know any English in the be- ginning,” says Kostiv, who went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts in history. Berkeley, he explains, made students choose a focus within their major. Kostiv selected Af- rica, with a further focus on apartheid. “My thesis was about black spots—little spots of black people in the territories where apartheid was practiced,” he says. “They didn’t kick out all the black people, but they were not supposed to be living with white people at the time. “It was incomprehensible to me how people can fully—legally and physically—live sepa- rated just because of their race.” He researched the same subject more fully after graduation when he spent over a year in South Africa at the University of KwaZulu- Natal for a master’s degree in political science. Like the British system, a master’s requires a long dissertation. From Africa, he was off to University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor. While there, he was able to spend a semester work- ing in Geneva, Switzerland, with South Cen- tre, an intergovernmental organization of developing nations, in a program addressing global warming. “If I had had any doubts about it before I started my work with the South Centre,” he says, “I finally knew this is a huge world prob- lem which one day can hurt the planet and all of us, big time.” Back in Ann Arbor, he says, corporate law looked like his path, but it was something he couldn’t warm up to. “I was ambitious to get a good job, but we were in really bad economic times,” Kostiv says. “I decided I was not going to pursue cor- porate jobs anymore. I didn’t have a feel for it. “A lot of my friends are immigrants and I’m an immigrant, and I’m 100 percent fluent in a number of languages,” he continues, describ- ing his change in direction toward immigra- tion law. “Maybe it didn’t sound as lucrative, but I just wanted to do something that I felt like doing.” AttorneyAtLawMagazine.com 13The challenge with that — no immigration law class was offered at U of M. For that, he says, he had to get resourceful. “I was asking for outlines and resources from friends of mine from different law schools to learn more about it,” he says. Leaving many friends and a lot of snow behind in Michigan, Kostiv returned to Los Angeles to begin his law career. “It was quite a story because I had a few dollars in savings,” he ex- plains. “I opened a law firm with me and one secretary. Now I have more than 60 people working full time. It was a big, big change. I think we did it with passion.” Kostiv’s on-field Spanish education came in handy when he opened his office in Koreatown, which he describes as the heart where the Central Americans are located. Also in the building was the General Consulate of El Salvador. A friendship formed, he says, and conversations often turned to le- gal issues. Soon the Consulate General invited him to El Salvador to speak about immigration. Later, he formally invited Kostiv to observe elections there to ensure there was no corruption. Kostiv, who now has an office in San Salvador, says he has visited the country upwards of 30 times. His fiancée, Marisela de Montecristo, was Miss El Salvador in 2018 and Nuestra Belleza Latina in 2013 on the popular Univision show. They are planning to get married within the year. “I started going to political events,” he says, “and now I just go see my family.” In addition to the office in El Salvador, Kostiv also maintains law offices in Miami; Tijuana and Guadalajara, Mexico; Guatemala City, Guatemala; and Kiev, Ukraine. A certification in transportation law has come in handy as he has traveled the world. He says he performs a lot of pro bono work for immigrants, particu- larly for special cases. “We have helped lots of families in need. Usually we help people who have special physical and economic circumstances.” Kostiv (center) with Stven Muñoz and Cesar Montoya ATTORNEY AT LAW MAGAZINE · LOS ANGELES · VOL. 6 NO. 3 14“A friendship formed, and conversations often turned to legal issues.” “Maybe (Immigration law) didn’t sound as lucrative, but I just wanted to do something that I felt like doing.” English was not the only language he mastered there, and professors were not the only teachers. AttorneyAtLawMagazine.com 15ATTORNEY AT LAW MAGAZINE · LOS ANGELES · VOL. 6 NO. 3 16“We have helped lots of families in need. Usually we help people who have special physical and economic circumstances,” he says, add- ing that blind children hold a special place in his heart. “It is based more on our feelings than on some sort of economic formula. We strongly believe in pro bono—very much so.” Understandably, Kostiv says “a big chunk” of his clients are Central American. Cases, he says, often fall along the lines of, “My daughter was deported. Can we do something?” “They just kicked me out. I don’t know what happened and why the sent me back to El Salvador.” And “I went back to Guatemala and my green card expired.” Some cases of the more than 5,000 cases Kostiv & Associates have handled are more serious. Kostiv recently represented a 9-year-old child born in Ohio, a citizen, who was detained at the border. He says when he presented the child’s documents to immigrations officials, he created a scandal. “This is unacceptable,” Kostiv says. “How do you keep this child in a detention facility? There’s no way a citizen should spend a minute in immigration. It is symbolic of how messed up our system is.” One recent client was seeking asylum in the United States after her daughter was cut up in 14 pieces. “There’s so much going on in Central America,” says Kostiv, who regularly holds educational seminars in the region to provide the citizens information about immigrating to the United States. “People need help and no one cares. “There’s not a single other U.S. immigration attorney practicing in Central America,” he continues. “People don’t know what to do and they don’t know where to go. No one goes there, and no one knows what’s going on.” One of his biggest concerns now is for the plight of detainees under the threat of COVID-19. “I am against the U.S. government for how immigration courts manage situations with the coronavirus,” says Kostiv, who is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “The disease can be spread in jail, and the government is making attorneys go to the jail in New York to file lawsuits.” His passion for the plight of Central Americans doesn’t mean he has turned his back on his homeland. Kostiv, who served as president of the Ukrainian American Bar Association for two years, travels to Ukraine about three times a year to serve business clients at his office there and stays active in the legal community. He says in addition to holding speaking engagements in Ukraine, when he was president of the UABA, he attracted “a whole bunch” of Ukrainian attorneys to the group’s conferences in the United States. “I am against the U.S. government for how immigration courts manage situations with the coronavirus, the disease can be spread in jail, and the government is making attorneys go to the jail in New York to file lawsuits.” AttorneyAtLawMagazine.com 17At a Glance Kostiv & Associates PC 3450 Wilshire Blvd. #400 Los Angeles, CA 90010 (213) 309-9123 www.abogadopetro.com www.kostivlaw.com Practice Areas Immigration Personal Injury Aviation Education Bachelor of Science, Aviation, Utah Valley University, 2019 Certificate of U.S. Aviation Law, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and IATA, 2017 Juris Doctor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2011 Graduate Certificate in Latin American Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2011 Master’s Degree, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa, 2008 Bachelor of Arts, History, University of California, Berkeley, 2006 Professional Memberships Ukrainian American Bar Association, President, 2013- 2015 American Immigration Lawyers Association, 2014-Present Honors International Advisory Experts, 2020 Litigator of the Year, 2019 Immigration Law, Top 10 Attorney and Practice 2019 Recognizing Excellence in Immigration law, Lawyers of Distinction, 2017-2020 10 Best Immigration Attorney California, 2018 Grand Marshal, DEFISAL, 2018 Notorious Person, DEFISAL, 2016 Stronach Prize Winners Land Reform in Post- Apartheid South Africa, 2006 Community Involvement Working with Red Cross in Mexico City after the earthquake in 2016 Regular visitor to numerous Hispanic events Regular Humanitarian work in Latin America and Africa Hobbies Aviation Soccer Travel — Visited more than 150 countries Foreign Languages Favorite Quote “It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.” — William Shakespeare Also in Ukraine, he worked with a law professor to initiate the first class of its kind at Kiev University of Law, “Introduction to U.S. Law.” Key to the course, he explains, is the difference between the Ukrainian style of law, which takes after European model, and the United States, which relies on more case law. “The kids were so excited because it was in Eng- lish,” he says, “and the parents were so excited that their kids finally got a good education.” In addition to his speaking arrangements in Ukraine, he has also conducted them in Argentina and South Africa. Could China be next? If not, it won’t be because of a language barrier. “I am very active right now in studying Chinese,” says Kostiv, adding that it has been a tough but re- warding challenge. “I’m a linguist at heart, and I am profoundly fascinated with learning new languages.” But it’s at his offices, he says, where he builds his close relationships with clients, and once they’ve used his team’s services, they return when they need legal help again. “They will say, ‘Attorney, you helped my family ob- tain our legal status,’” Kostiv quotes. “’I now have an unpleasant family emergency unrelated to immigra- tion. There are a bunch of other lawyers in that field, but I only want your firm to represent me because of the trust I have in you and your company.’ “It’s great to be known around the world,” he says, “but these interactions are the most rewarding.” ATTORNEY AT LAW MAGAZINE · LOS ANGELES · VOL. 6 NO. 3 18Top 10 - Forbes Best Banks Western Alliance Bank specializes in banking for law firms and settlement administrators. We bring you years of expertise in supporting all phases of the settlement process from escrow through distribution with a single point of contact. Our committed team offers a highly personalized and transparent banking experience with a focus on exceptional service, honesty, integrity, flexibility and responsiveness. We provide a broad range of customizable solutions, a commitment to building relationships and access to decision-makers. 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