Assignment 27A – Reading Reflection No. 3

Assignment 27A – Reading Reflection No. 3

1.     What was the general theme or argument of the book? I read How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams. Adam’s goes through his book discussing being successful in life, but in his introduction he informs the reader that he’s not sure if he became successful through the process he is going to describe or if it is just luck. His humor is really telling the reader that no one has one secret path to follow for success, it’s more about learning many different things from other successful people and learning what works for you, as well as some luck. Adam’s discusses using systems instead of goals, taking risks, and finding your energy and not your passion.

2.     How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003? Early on in the book, Adam’s mentions failure. It stood out to me because another assignment this week was discussing failure and how we handle it. It was interesting to read about Adam’s opinion on it and to apply it to my own experiences. Adam’s wrote, “The short answer is that over the years I have cultivated a unique relationship with failure. I invite it. I survive it. I appreciate it. And then I mug the shit out of it.” He then says that failure always brings value, and that he won’t forget his failures until he gets the value out of it and profits from it. I think this is a great attitude to have. What better way to deal with failure than inviting it yourself? And then learning directly from it.

3.     If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve? The exercise I would design for this class would be to go through three of the many lessons Adam’s mentions throughout the book. The first one is building your life around systems, not goals. The idea of this exercise is to develop a system where your plans can be adjusted and are not time sensitive. The second lesson is to find jobs that you are comfortable taking risks in, and determine which one is the best fit for you. This is done in hopes to lead you towards a job that you can be successful in. The last lesson is to manage your energy. This can be done by looking at the activities you enjoy, the space you work in, and the time you work at. In the exercise, each person would go through each of these steps and think of their own personal answers.

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? The most surprising part of this book for me was when Adam’s started to discuss the medical condition he dealt with for years; not being able to properly speak in normal conversations. This confused me, just as it confused his doctors. Adam’s was able to speak completely fine to himself or his cat, but in a social situation he couldn’t form normal sentences. My ‘aha’ moment came when he described how he handled this situation. All of his doctors didn’t know what was wrong with him and basically said he was crazy. So he went on to work through it himself to determine what was wrong. He put himself in situations that many people would not have been comfortable doing, so he could get closer to what the issue was. This showed me that even when we are faced with a large of an obstacle as that, it can still be overcome.