21a- Reading Reflection No. 2

Reading Reflection 2- How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still win Big, by Scott Adams

1)      What is the general theme or argument of the book?

The general theme of this book is that goals never truly lead to success, so one must focus on systems that are developed and proven to work instead. The book is written by Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert Cartoons, and he highlights the tremendous number of failures that he has dealt with in his life before finally striking success.

2)      How did the book connect with or enhance what you are learning in ENT3003?

This book seemed to be very in line with what we are learning in Principles of Entrepreneurship. The process of entrepreneurship itself has failure pretty much built into it, and Scott Adams reiterates time after time how much one will fail  before finally being able to achieve success. This idea definitely fits into what Dr. Pryor teaches in lecture, and also how the class is structured. There have been quite a few times this semester in which the assignments were tricky or more involved than I anticipated and I had to adjust on the fly to deal with it. I felt this is one of the things Adams focused on in his book when he stressed the idea of formulating a SYSTEM to accomplish goals, and not just relying on the goal itself.

3)      If you had to design an exercise for this class based on the book you read, what would it be?

Since the book stressed so heavily on the idea of formulating a system instead of just simply relying on goals, I would structure something along these lines. In my exercise, I would have the students formulate a goal (Any kind of goal- personal, professional, etc), and then build on this goal by attempting to formulate a system that could then be used to achieve this goal. For example, if my goal was to lose weight, my system would then be focused on how often I will be working out, what I will do to have a good diet, how to improve other aspects of health in my life, and so on.

4)      What was your biggest ‘A ha’ moment in the book?

My biggest ‘A ha’ moment when reading this book was definitely the part in which Adams said to use the idea of time and space in order to more efficiently manage your energy. This concept is still extremely interesting to me, and I still don’t feel I have fully wrapped my head around the concept. For example, one of the things he used to draw this metaphor was keeping different concepts of places separate in your head. For instance, if you view “the office” as work, then find somewhere else to be able to focus your energy into relaxing and unwinding, don’t mix the two locations together. This concept is extremely interesting to me, and I am not sure if I truly believe it to be helpful. For example, I often find myself doing a lot of school work at home, and don’t ever feel this to be an impediment to my thoughts or energy, it just happens to be the place in which I am doing work. I feel that if you can keep the idea of a location separate in your mind, then physical energy really doesn’t matter.