Name: How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big
Rating: 4.3 (122 reviews)
Author: Scott Adams

What’s in it for me? Learn that the path to success is paved with failure.

Do you sometimes regret that you didn’t take your parents’ advice and become a doctor or a lawyer or a banker? Are you tired of moving from job to job and never finding the right fit? Or maybe you’re filled with great ideas, but none of them have really come to anything?

Well, then you’ve got a thing or two to learn from Scott Adams, famous cartoonist and chronic failure. Before creating Dilbert, his hugely successful comic strip, Adams failed way more often than he succeeded: he got fired countless times, started a business that quickly went under and created a bunch of unsuccessful patents.

But he used all this unsuccess as material for his comics and, in the end, came out on top. If you take a page from his book, you may find that your failures are merely the cobblestones on the path to success.

In these blinks, you’ll also learn

why you shouldn’t be a specialist;
what the author named his failed burrito chain; and
about the benefits of delusions.

Create systems instead of setting goals.

Walk into a bookstore, find the self-help section and flip open a book. Nine times out of ten, you’ll encounter page upon page of upbeat prose extolling the life-changing benefits of setting clear goals.

But this praise is slightly misplaced, because goals, no matter how clear, have two problems: they’re future-oriented, and they’re overly specific.

Let’s start with the temporal trouble. All goals are situated in the future, but in order to achieve them, you must do work in the present. And when you begin working toward a goal, you usually won’t see immediate results. This can be frustrating and discouraging.

That’s why the author prefers systems, which are firmly grounded in the present. Unlike goals, systems are focused on the here and now and can be worked into your daily life, meaning that you can get daily pleasure from successfully operating them.

Adams learned about systems by chance. On a flight, he was once seated next to a man who explained how systems had transformed him from an employee to a CEO. His system was simple: keep moving from job to job, always looking for something better. Even though he didn't have a clear end-goal in mind, this system allowed him to accumulate so much know-how that he ended up in the CEO’s chair.

Systems also trump goals because they’re nonspecific.

The specificity of goals often creates an illusion of failure. People tend to feel that, if they don’t accomplish exactly what they set out to do, they haven’t accomplished anything.

For instance, say you want to lose 20 pounds before Valentine’s Day. This is a laudable goal, but it’s got some inherent issues. First, you’ll only get to celebrate when you achieve it; and second, if you fall one pound short, you’ve failed.

It’d be wiser to set up a system – say, to commit to exercising every day, whether for five minutes or half an hour. This way, you’ll establish a habit and have an easier time staying motivated.

This is what the author did as a young man. Whether writing or drawing or whatever it might have been, he’d create a system to produce and replicate material that people were receptive to, without a clear end-goal in mind.

And this was a clever move. Considering the number of jobs and projects he abandoned before creating his hit comic strip Dilbert, he probably would have felt like a total failure had he set his sights on one particular goal.

Identify your special skills and produce great work by combining them effectively.

Most of us have experienced parental pressure to pursue a certain career. You should be a doctor! Or a lawyer! Or one of those super successful Silicon Valley tech people!

But here’s the thing: you’re the only one who should decide what you want to do. And if that seems like a tall order, you should engage in a little old-fashioned introspection and identify your special skills.

Find energizing activities, determine when you’re at your best and never work where you relax.

Have you ever tried to go for a run even though you felt drained and unmotivated? Or forced yourself to eat some food even though you weren’t hungry? If you’ve done something like this, it’s probably because, instead of following your personal bodily rhythms, you were adhering to a schedule established by someone else.

And this is never a good idea; it’s always best to heed your natural rhythms and energy levels.

Use associate energy and delusions for your motivation and gain.

Moods are infectious. Maybe you’ve had your day thrown off by the grumpiness of a coworker. Or perhaps the opposite has happened, and you’ve found yourself grinning after being smiled at by a stranger.

This infectiousness is known as associate energy, so named because it refers to the energy you get – or are drained of – by associating with others.

Key ideas in How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big

What is How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big about?

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big (2013) is a grab bag of life and career advice from the creator of Dilbert, the popular comic strip. Scott Adams explains how he succeeded as a cartoonist and businessman, not despite his failures, but because of them. He also shares his secrets for maintaining high energy levels and using them to fuel a life of constant learning and improvement.