The Book I read was How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, by Scott Adams.
1. The general argument of the book was simply how to successfully succeed in a world where failure is so prevalent. Adams did this by diagnosing the idea of goals and why we need to be more lenient with ourselves and our visions of our future lives. Adams says that being discouraged by goals is one reason why others stop fulfilling their passion. Adams advises business owners to work at full capacity at any time they work and to look for marginal success instead of chipping away at an end goal.
2. This book connected with me because I had the same exact thoughts Adams did about my venture when I first started. Waking up one day and saying that you want to construct a company from the ground up is very challenging. This class actually employs the same design that Adams said would work. Instead of having one assignment in the class where the objective is to make a company, we have nearly 100 different assignments that are all separate grades and all contribute to the overall success of our companies. This instant gratification per assignment is how we should be graded for our final company, instead of looking at the company as a whole.
3. The exercise I would design for this book would be dissecting a large goal. Adams said goals were bad for two reasons: one is that they were in the future and not now, and two is that they are too specific and can be disappointing if not exactly obtained. My exercise would be to take a 5-year goal and dissect it into multiple accomplishments you need to receive in order to get close to your goal. That way, a business owner can gauge their success by how many of these 'checkpoint' goals are passed, instead of judging how well they are on their way to some unattainable goal.
4. The 'aha' moment in this book is where I realized I need more patience with my career. I tend to look at where I am and even now wonder if I am falling behind and if I will be able to get a goof job going forward. However, Adams would want me to slow down and take it one step at a time. Adams mentions many famous stars and entrepreneurs who did not make it until much later in their life. Sometimes, success takes a lot of time. I need to be more patient with how quick I am on my way to success.
Hey Michael,
ReplyDeleteNice post! I think that concept of being open to change and a different version of what we expect our future and outcome to be, should be more talked about because life will take you through such roller coasters that you would have never thought you would be facing that it is good to have an adaptable mindset! I think your exercise would be a very useful one!