1. I decided to read How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams. The general theme or argument of the book is that you can fail in a big way or a small way it doesn't really matter, you are always going to fail before achieving success. What this book tries to teach you is that you should come out of every failure not only stronger but also much more intelligent and willing to keep on trying on the next thing. Adams uses a very humorous way to tell his experiences and how he failed he's way to success.
2. I think that the one thing I can take away from this book and relate it to the class is probably not giving up. At times I have felt so uncomfortable that I just wanted to drop the class, at one point I was studying for my finance exam and I also had to interview a ton of people and I was overwhelmed. It was at that point that I thought about quitting and just taking some other class instead. It was at that moment that I realized that I couldn't just quit and go from class to class wasting my time. I think that this book emphasizes in how you should take as much away from failure so you can succeed in the long run. Adams stated that "simple systems are probably the best way to achieve success" and that's something I really take away from the book and apply it to the class. To succeed in this class you need a system, and that system won't always work, but thats what being an entrepreneur is all about, you have to get out there and talk to people, ask what people think about your product, and if your product is rejected you have to keep trying and most importantly not falling out of the system.
3. If I had to design an exercise for this class based on the book, I would probably like to design one that is a combination of going out to talk to people and doing some thinking of your own. Early on in the book in chapter four Adams lists his failures in summary form, and there you can find all types of failures from his time trying to develop games, to his own startup ideas not going anywhere, or his first attempt at cartooning that ended up with him being rejected. Doing some type of 'failure list' like Adams did would be the first part of the assignment so that students can asses their failures, the second part would be to go out there and talk to people in the fields that the students want to be in. Students would be able to analyze their drawbacks and those of the people in fields that they would like to be, and compare their failures and finally to be able to tackle them in the best way like those people already did.
4. I had many surprises while reading this book. I had no idea what type of book this was going to be, and I certainly didn't think that the author would take such a humorous stance. Probably one of the biggest surprises while reading the book was that Adams' went to a job interview wearing jeans and a t-shirt because he thought he should represent he was a college student, and he also stated that he didn't know anyone that had attended a job interview to be able to ask them what to wear. I find it surprising that he didn't ask his counselor or some college professor about it and actually be better prepare. But thats the theme of the book, failing and persevering until you succeed.
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