21A - Reading Reflection No. 2

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, Scott Adams

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

·      The general argument of the book is that making mistakes is a pivotal part of becoming successful and that learning from these experiences is what will help you grow and become successful. Scott Adams talks about a lot of examples from his life where he made mistakes and how he took these mistakes and learned from them, emphasizing how these learning moments contribute to becoming successful. The overall theme was to not be afraid of failure or of making mistakes, as it is through these experiences where we achieve optimal growth opportunities.

2)    How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT3003?

·      In my opinion, this book connected with what I have learned in ENT3003 so far by demonstrating the value of making mistakes and learning from our experiences. ENT3003 is designed as a very interactive course with zero tests and all of our assignments coming from actually interacting with the material. In developing a business concept and trying to grow our product/service idea, I (along with many students) have faced difficulties in identifying who to target in the marketplace, what price the concept should be set at, or with how your concept will work. This book connected directly with what I have learned in ENT3003 by emphasizing that it is okay to make mistakes and that hardships are a part of the journey. It is through learning from these experiences and interactive assignments that we can best grow as entrepreneurs and as people. We have all learned about how difficult it is to be entrepreneurs, but our attitudes towards failure/mistakes plays a large role in determining how successful we will be in the long run.

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

·      If I had to design an exercise for this class, I would create an exercise that involved failure. This exercise would either just be close to impossible to achieve or with a very tight deadline so that nearly every student would fail. Then I would create a follow-up exercise that would make up for the amount of points the students lost with their failed assignment and ask them about what they learned from their experience failing the previous exercise and what changes they would consider implementing so that maybe they do not fail the second time. By incorporating this exercise, you are exposing these students to failure early on and are allowing them an opportunity to truly learn from their mistakes and grow from them.

4)    What was your biggest surprise or ‘aha’ moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

·      I didn’t really have any big surprise or ‘aha’ moments when reading the book as I realized that Adams views align pretty similarly to my own. What differed the most from my expectations was probably Adam’s emphasis on truly learning from your failures/mistakes. Sometimes I don’t really think too hard about my failures and move on from them quickly, but Adams really reinforces the idea of taking time to pick apart your failures/mistakes, analyze why they happened, and what you can do differently in the future to prevent this from occurring again. The whole process revolves around self-reflection and analysis, which I think is often overlooked when people make mistakes and in individual’s attempts to become successful in life.