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I'm Michael Kavnett and this is the next big idea.

Today, how to stop being a victim and start becoming the person you're meant to be. Now let me ask you a question. What's holding you back in life? What's keeping you from being your

awesomest self, your highest earning, most connected, most creative, most loving self? Because

something's holding you back, isn't it? Maybe you were bullied as a kid or mistreated at work. Maybe you got dumped by

someone and that hurt your confidence. Maybe you've been judged for the way you look or the way you talk.

Maybe you've had health issues or been ripped off financially. Maybe somewhere along the way

you've suffered a mild or serious trauma.

Well, I feel for you, I do, but then again, welcome to the club.

Most of us at times and to varying degrees have felt screwed over by the world.

Psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman has a name for that way of thinking, the victim mindset.

And in his new book, Rise Above, he argues that that mindset itself, not the facts of your life,

but your response to those facts, is what's likely holding you back.

And it's not just you. Scott argues that a victim mindset has become a defining feature of modern life, on social

media, in our politics, in how we talk to each other and to ourselves.

Now to be clear, Scott doesn't deny the reality of trauma.

He's lived it.

As a kid, he was diagnosed with a learning disability and shunted into special ed, where he felt isolated and looked down on.

He was told he wasn't college material.

But instead of internalizing that story, Scott rewrote it.

Today, he has degrees from Carnegie Mellon, Cambridge, and Yale.

He's an award-winning cognitive scientist, a professor at

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