Reading Reflection No. 2

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

1.     What is the general theme of the book?

The general theme was about failure and how to accept failure and use it in a way to benefit you. One of biggest things that he talked about was having systems instead of goals. Thinking and acting in a way that requires you to do things on a daily basis leads to more success than having long term goals not connected to the present.

2.     How did this book in your opinion connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

The first thing that I saw a connection with between the book and this class was on failure. Many of us, including myself, have changed our main product/idea over the course of the past 8 weeks. Maybe it was because we simply didn’t like it or weren’t motivated enough to work with it or because we realized that it wasn’t doable. But this was a failure. Which is great! Because we learned something from what we did wrong or what was wrong with the product and we moved on to something else. Something else that I saw a connection with was that Adams wrote about how having a lot of energy or a sense of humor can go a long way in being a successful entrepreneur. It can make or break a product or presentation, and your energy and enthusiasm can often bridge the gap between the product and the people you are trying to sell it to.

3.     If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would it be?

I have always been a big fan of the power of creative thinking. The author mentioned an experience he had when two completely unrelated thoughts came together in his head to create a new idea. This reminded me of an exercise that I did at a club meeting one time. We had to create a business or a product with some team members based off of 2-3 random words that we were given, but we only had about 5-7 minutes to do it before presenting it. So if I were to design an exercise for this class I would probably do something along the lines of this. I would require students to use a random noun generator online (and include a screen shot of the words that the generator came up with), and come up with a detailed product or business (no matter how silly or random or unlikely it may be) and write several paragraphs about it. The point of the exercise would be to encourage students to think outside of the box and really stretch their creativity. It would also be a good lesson on failure and how coming up with really crazy and outlandish products/businesses that would never succeed can lead to other ideas that could actually be very successful.

4.     What was your biggest surprise or aha moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

I think my ‘aha’ moment came when I read the line about a system versus a goal: “A goal is a specific objective that you either achieve or don’t sometime in the future. A system is something you do on a regular basis that increases your odds of happiness in the long run. If you do something every day, it’s a system. If you’re waiting to achieve it someday in the future, it’s a goal.” This really stood out to me. I feel like I’ve always been told to set goals and then work towards them. But this was such a different way of looking at the big picture of success. A goal is something you are waiting to achieve. If you create a systematic way to achieve that goal, then you become someone who is actually achieving your goal.