“How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big” by
Scott Adams
The general
theme is stay persistent in your pursuit for success. Something I’ve believed
for a very long time, and the book consistently mentions, is that being
successful means you have failed a lot. Don’t let setbacks or failures deter
you from pursuing goals and achieving excellence.
This course
has instilled the notion that the initial draft of a project, service, or
product will always need improving. It’s important to quickly get your idea to
market and receive feedback. That feedback loop is essential to being
successful. This book never stopped saying that same philosophy. The end never
looks like how you envisioned it, but with persistence you can achieve greatness.
I would say
the best exercise would have students either list all of their failures that
eventually became successes. Or, focus on the failures of great business
people. Seeing real world examples of the necessity of failure can help
students realize the importance of persistence.
I’ve heard
the idea of not setting goals. Once you finish a project, and realize just how
different the end product is from your initial idea or endpoint, that will lead
to disappoint. I don’t necessarily agree with that because I think short-term
measurable goals are good. But, the revelation that long-term goals could lead
to disappointment was definitely insightful.
Although I have not read this book, I feel like I've learned a lot about it from your reflection. I find that it is easy to gain inspiration from this, with its overall message of not having setbacks deter you from pursuing goals and achieving success. I find that one can gain inspiration from this book and not only apply to towards entrepreneurship but also life itself.
ReplyDeleteJust having read the reading reflection on Phil Knight, there are definite similarities here in what these books are teaching such as working hard, staying tenacious toward your goals, and being persistent will get you where you want to go. I love reading these reflections because it essentially is building a guide book for entrepreneurship. Books such as this establish the mindset one should have when being an entrepreneur and books such as the ones I read establishes the perceptions one should have when dealing with failures.
ReplyDeleteHey Mitchell,
ReplyDeleteI also read this book a while back and found it to be extremely enjoyable. I agree that this book seems to repeat a lot of the core values that this course offers and I do not think that is any coincidence. I believe that this is something common among most entrepreneurs and that is why it is represented so widely among outlets. I really like your first exercise as well because I certainly have never thought of my failures that became successes, but I'm sure if I thought about it enough, there are plenty. Overall, really good job on presenting the ideas of this book.
Hi Mitch,
ReplyDeleteI also think it is important to have goals. This book was interesting when it said that it's better to have systems instead of goals. I think you should have goals in order to have a process or system to get to where you want to be. However, it should be a good learning process if it doesn't lead you to where you want to be.
I also read Scott. Love your take on the reading. I like the activity because it makes people reflect on how they have overcome in the past. This will make them more likely to push past failure in the future. And I think that's kinda the point of the course as far as risks go.
ReplyDelete