Book Review: How To Fail At Almost Everything And Still Win Big

Starting today, every Friday I will feature a book that has made an impact on me recently, and whose ideas I am trying to incorporate and apply in my life.

I will keep these reviews short - the idea being to convey the gist of why I like this book succinctly, so that you can decide whether to pick it up and peruse over the weekend*.

The first book to kick off this new feature: Scott Adams' excellent new book How To Fail At Almost Everything And Still Win Big: Kind of The Story of My Life.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Other books by this author I have read: Read and thoroughly enjoyed The Dilbert Future.

General Comments: It's humorously written, laugh-out-loud funny, and decidedly a very different tone than usual business books. Adams' book is a cross between business and motivational, and although the tone doesn't correspond to either, he gives some very astute insights. I have enumerated 3 of these below, but the book has far more interesting ideas that are definitely worth a read.

3 Insights From The Book:

1. Focus on systems not goals - Adams' believes that instead of pursuing goals, we should focus on systems, something you do regularly, that leads to success. For writers for instance, a system would be to write daily, while a goal might be to hit the New York Times Bestseller List.

2. Simplify rather than optimize - many of us have a tendency to optimize on decisions and tasks, leading to additional stress. Adams' stresses that simplifying rather than optimizing can remove a lot of stress and make certain things more likely to happen. For instance, simplify your exercise routine, and do something active everyday, rather than try to optimize various factors such as the proper nutrition before exercise, and the optimum number of sets of weight training.

3. Focus on maximizing your personal energy - Adams' devotes a number of chapters to various aspects of optimizing one's personal energy - such as eating right, exercising daily, getting enough sleep etc. His belief is that when you have enough energy, you will be able to tackle the truly important items that will advance your career and personal goals.

Recommend For: Everyone, especially those who like to read books on business, self-help, creativity, productivity. There were insights on topics that affect all of us - everyone would find something useful.

 * Book links are affiliate links, which means I would make a small commission if you decide to buy it. This doesn't affect the decision of which books I review or the content of the review.