The Reinventor's Mindset: Advice I've given 100 times but never written down
- Ashton Jones
- Jan 13
- 2 min read
Updated: Feb 17
On the first day of INSEAD, our professor said something that stuck with me:
"This course will be confronting as you realise it's the last moment to reinvent yourself."
I thought quietly - that's BS.
I've been reinventing myself my whole life. And so can you.
Where did it start? In squat little government housing near Top Ryde.
My nose buried in books - fantastical worlds far away from the volatility of my childhood. I devoured them.
I grew to love science fiction. Not for the futuristic technology, but for its optimism.
Even dystopian books at their core are about hope - hope that showing a terrifying vision of the future will help us course correct today.
That became my foundational leadership philosophy: hope, optimism, and belief.
Helping others see strengths they couldn't see in themselves.
But four weeks at INSEAD made me ask harder questions.
Why was I an effective leader? What were my values? My quest?
Why, when a team member came to me frustrated that stakeholders had "watered
down" her pitch document, did I tell her that was a good thing?
That a 70% version with five owners beats a 100% version with one. That their fingerprints on the work meant they'd own the outcome - and that mattered more than her pristine vision.
I'd given that advice a hundred times. But I'd never written down why.
So, I did. I shaped it. I made it universal and teachable - but grounded in my own life and career.
The Reinventor's Mindset™ was born - 9 frameworks, 3 parts, 1 arc.
The central thesis runs through everything:
Transformation is not something new.
It's reclaiming something true.
Why I'm building this
I wanted to be a writer at fifteen. I chose accounting instead - not because I loved numbers, but because I'd grown up in housing commission and made a promise to myself: never put my family in financial insecurity again.
That choice worked. I built a career. Made money. Forgot I'd ever wanted anything else.
Twenty years later, I'm writing a book. Not because I found more time or discovered hidden discipline. Because I finally understood that the writer was never gone - just buried under marble that needed removing.
Subscribe here to dive into
The Reinventor's Mindset
What you get
I share what I'm learning as I build The Reinventor’s Mindset™ in public. Not from the summit. From the middle of the climb.
You'll get:
The Reinventor’s Mindset™ framework deep-dives
Early excerpts and previews of the book Bold Water
Insights from interviews with leaders who've transformed from within
Lessons from INSEAD, from teaching, from getting it wrong
The honest version - what's working, what isn't, what I'm still figuring out
I'm writing mid-journey because that's when the lessons are freshest. And because I think there's something more honest about sharing the map while you're still in the territory.
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