![How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life by [Adams, Scott]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51sqVXNWHhL._SY346_.jpg)
I read this book on the recommendation of a friend who is a life coach. She believes in a "systems approach" ranging from daily organization all the way to getting one's life priorities in order. The book was written as a casual life story with odds and ends thrown in. It wasn't one of those with a series of life-changing revelations about success, followed by a list of changes you MUST make, shifting to wondering where to begin, and ending with nagging disappointment at not reaching ANY of those big goals. Not only was it an easy, conversational read, but I was able to NAIL the results according to the point of the book.
As Adams says, you shouldn't take life advice from a cartoonist, but I did. I would enjoy reading more of his books as he is an interesting and outside-the-box thinker. Though it's not an earth-shattering-revelation tome, I give it 5 stars for ease and likeliness of success.
From Booklist
The creator of the Dilbert comic strip is also the author of several nonfiction books that apply Dilbert’s philosophy to the workplace. Here he takes an autobiographical approach, using his own life to illustrate his thesis that failure isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Adams’ own list of failures is—given his spectacular success as a cartoonist—surprisingly lengthy: a couple of unsuccessful restaurants as well as computer games, inventions, and online businesses that all tanked. Adams isn’t bummed by any of his flops because—and this is the key element of his philosophy—you learn by trying, not by succeeding. And every failure in life helps point us in the direction of ultimate success. (Adams says he would never have become a cartoonist if it weren’t for a combination of personal failures and the successes of some of his friends, who were willing to take personal risks.) Readers familiar with the author’s previous nonfiction will note the same easygoing, conversational style here, an approach that works perfectly for blending humor with serious advice. --David Pitt
Review
“Adams has a funny, refreshingly considered set of ideas about how to find success—and what that success will look like when one gets there.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Scott Adams has drawn nearly 9,000 Dilbert cartoons since the strip began, in 1989, and his cynical take on management ideas, the effectiveness of bosses, and cubicle life has affected the worldview of millions. But he built his successful career mainly through trial and error—a whole lot of error, to be exact.
—Harvard Business Review
—Kirkus Reviews
“Scott Adams has drawn nearly 9,000 Dilbert cartoons since the strip began, in 1989, and his cynical take on management ideas, the effectiveness of bosses, and cubicle life has affected the worldview of millions. But he built his successful career mainly through trial and error—a whole lot of error, to be exact.
—Harvard Business Review
