Assignment 21A

Reading Reflection No. 2

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams

• 1.) What was the general theme or argument of the book? Adams vividly discusses the elements that make up his life. He shares how he learned how to take care of himself from loss to loss until he eventually won big. A quote that excellently sums up the memoir reads, "The most important form of selfishness involves spending time on your fitness, eating right, pursuing your career, and still spending time with your family and friends." He reiterates this theme of taking care of yourself throughout the memoir. 
• 2.) How did the book connect with and enhance what I am learning in ENT3003? Scott Adams invented the Dilbert office cartoon that is now known all around the world. This is known as his "big success". However, he encountered many failures that led to his success. He touches on how he kept himself motivated, healthy, and happy while racking up all the failures that led to his success. Throughout this course, there were many ideas for my product venture that were failures and I had to move on from them. This memoir illustrated that there is no time limit on success and that you must fail before you can truly succeed. In this course, I have learned how to think and act like an entrepreneur. This depiction of Adams' life further enhanced my experience by showing that living the entrepreneur dream is possible with a little failure along the way. This book enhanced and provided a real-world example of how staying positive and persevering can help you reach success. 
• 3.) If I had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book I read, what would this exercise involve? If I had to design an exercise centered around this book, I would design an exercise that focuses on failure. I would ask my students to write down every failure that they have had in their life, no matter how big or small. Then I would ask them to write down a possible reason behind this failure. I would then ask them to write down their successes thus far and reasons for those successes. Then, I would ask them to compare the failures and successes and see if many of their failures led to later successes. 
• 4.) What was my biggest surprise or 'aha' moment while reading the book? What did I learn that differed from expectations? The biggest lesson I learned was from a piece of advice that Adams shared with readers. He talked about how he preferred systems over goals. A system is going from job to job and always trying to find something better. Goals are more specific and they are always in the future. I was surprised at how differently I started thinking when I started living in the moment rather than chasing far-away goals. Goals are still important, but thinking about them on a smaller and less-specific scale is a key to long-term success. I expected this book to chronicle every failure that Adams experienced and how they led to his success. The memoir was much more vivid and included tips on how to remain successful by taking care of yourself.