21A - Reading Reflection No. 2

For this assignment, I chose the book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams. I chose this book because the title itself is very alluring and captured my attention almost immediately. Initially, it is an interesting concept referring to how failure can actually be the reason behind people’s long term success.

1)    The general theme of the book is detailed instruction on how to prepare yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally, to move from failure to success in your life. It was extremely entertaining and an interesting ready for young adults interested in entrepreneurship.

2)    The book enhanced what I am learning in ENT3003 because the first thing that we were taught in this class is that entrepreneurship is a difficult field and that failure is the normality almost. The difference between a failure and a successful entrepreneur is how they react and move forward from their failures. I think this book is extremely important for any entrepreneur to read as it sheds a different perspective on the idea of failure.

3)    If I had to design an exercise in class, I would utilize the first big picture point that Adams makes it in the book. He talks about how he uses “systems” instead of “goals” in his life because goals inherently are flawed measurements of success. I would base an exercise off this idea and ask the students to come up with their own type of “system” and to replace certain goals in their life with this system.

4)    The thing that surprised me most was the third lesson of the book. The idea of “finding your energy” rather than “finding your passion”. Basically, this means that instead of looking for the thing you are most passionate about, seek out the things that energize you the most. These things are much easier to point out and notice in your everyday life. It could be an activity, space, or time of the day. Energizing your mind and body is the most important aspect of working towards a success.