1. The general theme of "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big" by Scott Adams was very witty yet knowledgeable at the same time. I was very impressed with how the writer kept the book very entertaining with humor and wit, but at the same time continued to tell his story and give his input on what is best for your own life achievement. One of the best arguments he explains in the book is this idea of systems vs. goals and how "goals are for losers" and that in order to succeed you need to develop systems for things and just focus on the system instead of focusing on goals. He argues that with goals you are always trying to live up to the goal and never quite reaching it because you are constantly setting new goals, whereas with a system you can focus on the process and ignore a goal, which eventually becomes a natural byproduct of your system.
2. In my opinion, this book connects with the intangible qualities in this class. I believe that it really connects with the entrepreneurship mindset because Scott talks a lot about intangible qualities and fixes for mental attitudes.
3. If I had to design an exercise for this class after reading this book, I would design an exercise where you have to list a bunch of wants you have and then list decisions and actions you would take to achieve these wants. I would do this because in the book, Scott talks about wishing vs. deciding and how many people talk about wants that they have but never do anything to act on them and take action to achieve these wants.
4. My biggest surprise was learning about Scott's outlook on goals and how he doesn't believe that they are as effective as systems. While I don't think that Scott was saying to discard goals completely, it was still surprising to see someone take such a different approach to handling goals and such. I actually really like his outlook on systems and believe that it is a viable approach to success and could very well work if applied correctly.
I agree that it is very difficult to be witty and tell your story. I very well might give this book a read from how you describe it. I definitely agree that instilling a system is the best way to garner success, but I don’t necessarily believe that goals are fruitless. Goals are the foundation for the creation of his “systems.”
ReplyDeleteFrom reading this post, this sounds like a great book to read. It is an interesting approach that Scott takes on success, as he argues that developing a system is more effective than goals, and that goals should be disregarded. I rely heavily on creating goals for myself to accomplish in order to succeed, but It was interesting to read about an entirely different approach towards success that could be worth a try.
ReplyDeleteHi Alex,
ReplyDeleteI think this was super interesting. I think it is really cool to learn about other people's perspective on goals and life. I do think that you should appreciate the process and do well in order to get to what you want in life. So I think it is still important to have set goals. Really interesting read!