The book I read was How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big. This book was about how to take failing in stride and how to fail until you succeed. It was about learning how to handle these failures in a manner that simply brings you closer to your end purpose in life, your success.
In this class we are taught that many entrepreneurs start with little capital and no investors, and often times new businesses fail. Well, in this book, the author discusses many failed ventures he endured until he ultimately found his winning talent. The author tells readers to look for the opportunities in which they have a natural advantage, something no one else can do. This ties in with what we have learned about our human capital and the resources that we bring to our venture. Each individual has strengths that no one else has and it is using these talents that will lead to success, not just inventing the next great idea but utilizing human capital and resources that are not easily replicated since individuals are all unique in their skills.
If I had to design an exercise for this class based on this book, I would have students design not their goals for their ventures, but strategies. One of the points the author makes in the book is to have a system in place instead of a goal. This is seen in the author's strategy of failing upward where he continued to get promoted as a result of not fitting in the lower level positions. So it would be interesting to see what strategies and systems students have both personally and professionally. This could be seen in some kind of SMART goal exercise where students are encouraged to plan steps and strategies, not just list goals.
My biggest surprise in reading this book was when the author began discussing personal energy levels. At first I was surprised to read about healthy living styles, but it made a lot of sense. The book is all about how to fail into success, both personally and professionally. Sometimes a simple dietary or exercise fix can make an individual feel like an entirely different person. It is also proven that exercise releases endorphins, so when we exercise we naturally feel happier and healthier, which can make handling failure much easier and helps individuals not spiral into a depression over a failure. It is about succeeding from the inside out, in every area.
Hey Katia,
ReplyDeleteI think it is cool, we both actually read the same book! I really enjoyed it with how Adams wrote the book with a different perspective on anything that I have ever read before honestly. I also found the book interesting with the energy level thing. It does make a lot of sense though. I know in my life, if I sit down in the evening to try and do school work, I am mentally exhausted to the point I can hardly focus. Because of that, I find that I probably do not do my best work. I think I am going to try and implement a different strategy according to what he was saying on the subject.
-Dakota Horlocker
Hi Katia!
ReplyDeleteI read this same book earlier in the semester. I liked most of it, but I did think he jumped around from topic to topic- almost like “stream-of-consciousness” writing. I also thought that he strayed away from the main theme, letting failures lead us to eventual success, quite a lot in the book. However, it is still a good read with many good takeaways.
This is a good week to have read this book- considering that the main theme is letting failures lead one to success and this week we had to write a post about how failures affect us.
I think we can all learn a lot from this book about, as you said, taking failures in stride and handling failures well until we ultimately succeed. I also agree with what Mr. Adams said about putting systems in place- that was a very interesting part of the book.
Good review!