21A Reading Reflection No. 2

The book that I chose to read from the second selection of readings was How To Fail At Almost Everything and Still Win Big, by Scott Adams. The main thing of the book was pretty much exactly what the title said. It explained that in a career, one can still win big and find success, despite numerous failures that one might encounter along that said path to success. There were also many points made in the reading that connected and enhanced my experience in this course. The biggest takeaway, however, was that one should take risks and work in areas that we are comfortable in and that we are obsessed with. There are always areas in one's life that they love, there are things people do, whether it be jobs or hobbies, that they wish to do for the rest of their lives. A person should try to find opportunities in areas of life they love and enjoy, as that will make it easier to both take risks, and succeed. The book also helped me come up with different ideas for assignments and exercises for this course. One thing that the reading discusses is the use of systems instead of goals. Adams states that goals were not ideal to set, because they are typically far in the future and are often too specific to ever truly achieve. Instead, Adams suggested the use of systems, which are essentially plans and tasks that should be done each day, and if you complete those tasks, and position yourself to complete future tasks, then that day can be considered a success. The exercise for this class could simply be to create a system for the week, and discuss different tasks you completed throughout the week to achieve tasks that you would like to compete in the future. The biggest surprise that came from this reading would have to be that even the smartest and most successful people in the world fail all the time, and yet are still incredibly successful. For example, Adams discusses how he met a man on a flight who discussed how the use of systems helped him go from an average employee to a CEO, but that there were plenty of failures along the way. I found it incredible that as long as you are organized and stick to timelines that you create for yourself, you can still grind and push through failure after failure until you finally reach what may possibly be the peak of your business career.