Reading Reflection No. 3

1.     What was the general theme of argument of the book?

For this assignment, I decided to read How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams. The book is essentially about mindset, and how passion, while inherently a good thing, is basically all BS, which I thought was interesting. Scott Adams uses his life experiences and trial and error to create this narrative that we can mostly make our own luck. Even though Adams’s failures included bad luck, among other things, he took those experiences and harnessed them to create success for himself. It was a wildly entertaining book because the tone that he takes is one that definitely resonates within young people.

2.     How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

The book connected and enhanced what I’m learning in this class because Adams himself has entrepreneurial experience. In the section where he talks about how passion is bullshit, he talks about how he invested in a restaurant, and his passion was sky-high when he did it. However, the business later failed, and his passion turned into frustration, so it then disappeared. He basically concluded that passion doesn’t cause success, rather than success causes passion. It’s an interesting anecdote because entrepreneurs typically start projects with passion, and that’s kind of where I got my idea for my venture concept at the beginning of the semester.

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

If I designed an exercise for this class, I would ask the class to write a meditation guide (individually). Adams wrote that he and a friend wrote a beginner’s guide to meditation, and that he meditated for years, which came with a lot of benefits. When they advertised it, they learned a great deal about advertising, marketing and product development. I think that would be a very valuable exercise for people in this class because meditation is a good thing, and marketing and advertising experience is invaluable.

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 was definitely surprised to see his take on passion. The whole reason why I decided to go back to school to get my Master’s degree is solely because of my passion for sports. I’m a sport management graduate student, and my mantra is when you love what you do, you never have to work a day in your life. I was definitely surprised to see him say that passion is completely bullshit, especially considering he “still wins big.”