21 A- Reading Reflection No. 2

The book I read was How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams. In general, the book focuses on how to find the small wins in even the largest of failures. Overall, I believe the author and I have similar outlooks and mindsets when it comes to using failure to drive motivation. This book connected with and enhanced what I am learning about in ENT 3003 in several ways. The first being that Adams explains how he has had several failed startups, prior to finding his passion for creating cartoons. The way in which Adams fosters failures to propel forward is inspiring and I could see how I could translate this into my professional career (wether that be starting a business, taking on a management role, or anything in between. Also, Adams suggests that individuals should take on ventures/roles where they feel comfortable taking risks. This reminds me of a sales class I once had, where our professor suggested we do our initial pitches on a subject who will most likely say "no." This way, you get comfortable with failure, a constant theme in Adam's book. If I had to design an exercise for this class based on this book, I would have it revolve around risks and reward. I would have the assignment focus on our product/service we have been working on this semester, and have the students identify three risks they could take in order to improve their idea. Then, I would ask the students to think about one positive and one negative for each risk, this way we can encourage out of the box thinking. Finally, the biggest surprise while reading was how important having a set space to work is for success. This is the case for me, as I cannot do work in my bedroom. I found it interesting that others think like this and like to separate work from pleasure. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and learning further how to foster my losses into small wins.