Reading Reflection No. 2

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

1. The general theme/argument of this book was a very humorous collection of lessons about life and success. Scott Adams tells many stories about his personal professional career (he is most famous for his creation of "Dilbert" comics) and what he has learned through them. It covers a plethora of different topics about life and I truly enjoyed every part of the book!

2. This book connected to ENT3003 in many ways. One way that I noticed first was the way Adams stressed the importance of knowing the right people. A huge part of success is keeping a strong network and utilizing it in your career. This can be reflected in our class with our social capital exercise. Another thing that connects is the topic of recognizing your own talents and how to use them to your advantage. A part I particularly loved is that of "positive attitude is not optional" and its true--it is necessary for success!

3. If I had to design an exercise for this class based on the book, it would be an exercise in which we map out our "goals vs. systems." Adams explains the difference as: goals are what you want to happen, systems are how you get there. For example, a goal is wanting to lose 10 pounds where a system is working out daily. He explains that goal oriented people are constantly chasing their goals and then when they reach them they feel out of place and then look for another goal. People who are system oriented are happy with each day completing the system. I like this outlook and I think it would be a great idea to make an exercise where we right down our different systems that we want to take up in our lives to improve them and help us accomplish what we would like to accomplish.

4. A big surprise to me was Adams outlook on passion. Many people would say "follow your dreams," "follow your passion," or "don't let anyone tell you you can't do something--" but that simply isn't realistic. We constantly hear that if we follow our dreams and our passions that we will become successful, when in the real world, it is usually the other way around. If we follow opportunity, we will find that success will come easily and that when we see the good things that our opportunity has brought us and the people it serves, the passion will follow.