Scott Adams - How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

If youre already as successful as you want to be, both personally and professionally, all you are likely to get from this book is a semientertaining tale about a guy who failed his way to success. But you might also notice some familiar patterns in my story that will give you confirmation (or confirmation bias) that your own success wasnt entirely luck. Thats the sort of validation you cant get from your family and friends who see you as a hot mess.

This is the story of one persons unlikely success within the context of scores of embarrassing failures. If youre just starting your journey toward successhowever you define itor youre wondering what youve been doing wrong until now, I expect youll find some novel ideas here. Maybe the combination of what you know plus what I think I know will be enough to keep you out of the wood chipper.

Was my eventual success primarily a result of talent, luck, hard work, or an accidental just-right balance of each? All I know for sure is that I pursued a conscious strategy of managing my opportunities in a way that would make it easier for luck to find me. Did my strategy make a difference, or is luck just luck, and everything else is just rationalization? Honestly, I dont know. Thats why I suggest you compare my story with the stories of other people who found success and see if you notice any patterns. Thats exactly the process I have used since childhood, and either it worked for me or I simply got lucky. Ill never know which it was. If you pick up some ideas in this book and go on to great success, you wont know exactly what made the difference either. But you might think you do, and that reason will probably have something to do with your many levels of awesomeness. Thats how human brains work. But hey, maybe in your case its true. In my case, I prefer to embrace my ignorance and leave it an open question.

This is not an advice book. If youve ever taken advice from a cartoonist, theres a good chance it didnt end well. For starters, its hard to know when a cartoonist is being serious and when he or she is constructing an elaborate practical joke. Ive crafted pranks that spanned years, sometimes when no one was in on the joke but me. Some of those pranks are still percolating. I have posed as other people online and even in person. I once wore a professional disguise and infiltrated a high-level business meeting just to get material for the Dilbert comic strip.

On top of that, Im getting paid to write this book, and we all know that money distorts truth like a hippo in a thong. And lets not forget Im a stranger to most of you. Its never a good idea to trust strangers.

By any objective measure, I might be one of the least credible people on earth. Im not too proud to admit that given a choice between saying whats true and saying whats funny, Ill take the path with the greatest entertainment value.

Im also not an expert at anything, including my own job. I draw like an inebriated howler monkey and my writing style falls somewhere between baffling and sophomoric. Its an ongoing mystery to me why I keep getting paid.