Reading Reflection No. 2

1) What was the general theme or argument of the book?

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

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

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?

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1) For this second reading reflection, I read How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big. The general theme of this book is that it is okay to fail at things. Scott Adams talks a lot about how in the corporate world he got promoted several times because he was bad at his current job, but reached out to people above him and got promoted. Even with average competencies he managed to get promoted despite failing at, as the title suggests, almost everything he did. He also talks about his comic career and how he has mediocre drawing and writing skills, yet he started a small following that has exploded into worldwide popularity. He speaks about the fact that if you can combine skills you can overcome obstacles and make yourself a more desirable employee or entrepreneur.

2) In my opinion the book has enhanced what we have learned because it talks a lot about building your human capital. He breaks down his entrepreneurial past and discusses how even when he failed at many, many ventures, he learned a lot of marketable skills and knowledge in the industry. Adams even used the phrase secret sauce and idea napkin.

3) If I were to make an exercise based off of this book I would require people to interview five people. In these interviews, you would have to ask each person about one of their most notable failures and how they have grown from the situation. I think it would be useful to see that failure is not the worst thing and it would be cool to see that you can overcome anything you might go through.

4) The biggest surprise that I had from this book, was that Adams failed his way to better and better jobs. He eventually hit barriers, but would simply change jobs before he would get fired. He managed to make his way into upper management jobs simply because he was able to communicate with his superiors and find ways to improve himself through working.