How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big Plot Summary

Introduction

Scott Adams' path to success is one of the most counterintuitive success stories of our time. The creator of Dilbert, a comic strip syndicated in over 2,000 newspapers across 65 countries, Adams achieved extraordinary success not through traditional talent or ambition, but through a unique approach to failure and opportunity. Born in a small town with no special connections or advantages, Adams developed a system that allowed him to transform countless failures into stepping stones toward achievement. What makes Adams' journey so compelling is his refreshing honesty about the role of luck and his systematic approach to increasing the odds of success. Rather than pursuing goals in the conventional sense, he developed frameworks for energy management, skill acquisition, and opportunity creation that allowed him to thrive despite repeated setbacks. His philosophy challenges conventional wisdom about passion, perseverance, and planning, offering instead a practical blueprint for navigating an unpredictable world. Through Adams' experiences, we witness how ordinary talents, when combined strategically, can lead to extraordinary outcomes, and how reframing our relationship with failure might be the most powerful tool for personal growth.

Chapter 1: Early Struggles and the Power of Systems

Scott Adams grew up in a small town where opportunities were limited. In his early years, there was little to suggest he would become a successful entrepreneur and world-famous cartoonist. As a child, he was obsessed with drawing, though he lacked exceptional artistic talent. This early passion for creating comics, despite not being particularly skilled, foreshadowed his later philosophy that perseverance and systems matter more than natural ability. After college, Adams began his professional life as a bank teller at Crocker National Bank. By his own admission, he was terrible at the job, routinely misplacing money and transposing numbers. Rather than accepting failure, he boldly wrote a letter to a senior vice president showcasing his ideas for improving the bank. Though his suggestions were unimpressive, his sense of humor caught the executive's attention, earning him a spot in the management training program. This pattern—failing at one position but interviewing his way into better ones—continued throughout his banking career. Adams later moved to Pacific Bell, where he spent eight years in various corporate positions. During this time, he developed what would become his core philosophy: goals are for losers, and systems are for winners. Rather than fixating on specific outcomes, Adams focused on creating reliable processes that increased his odds of success over time. He compared this approach to that of a hunter who intelligently chooses his location, maximizing the chances that luck will eventually find him. While working at the phone company, Adams began waking at 4:00 AM to draw comics before his day job. He submitted his work to major syndication companies, facing numerous rejections before United Media finally offered him a contract for Dilbert. Even then, success wasn't immediate—newspaper sales stalled after initial interest. But Adams had a system: he continued creating comics, writing books, and exploring new avenues for his work, including being the first syndicated cartoonist to put his email address in every strip to gather reader feedback. Adams' early corporate experiences provided not only the material for Dilbert but also taught him the value of persistence in the face of repeated failure. He developed what he calls "failing forward"—extracting valuable knowledge, skills, or connections from each unsuccessful venture. This approach transformed what others might see as career setbacks into a powerful foundation for his eventual success as a cartoonist, author, and entrepreneur.

Chapter 2: Finding Purpose Through Dilbert

When Dilbert first appeared in newspapers in 1989, it was far from an overnight sensation. The comic strip began as a modest success in a handful of newspapers, but sales quickly stalled. What differentiated Adams from countless other aspiring cartoonists was his willingness to adapt based on feedback. In a pivotal decision, he printed his email address in the margins of his strip—the first syndicated cartoonist to do so—creating a direct channel to his audience. The feedback was immediate and transformative. Readers consistently preferred strips that focused on workplace dynamics over Dilbert's home life or interactions with his pet dog Dogbert. Adams recognized the pattern and shifted the comic's focus accordingly. "I changed the focus of the strip to the workplace, and that turned out to be the spark in the gasoline," Adams recalled. This responsiveness to market feedback exemplified his systems-based approach to success. By the mid-1990s, Dilbert had become the perfect mirror for the corporate era. As downsizing swept through American businesses, Dilbert emerged as the voice of the beleaguered office worker. The timing couldn't have been better—just as technology was becoming a cultural focal point, Dilbert represented the engineers and programmers who were transforming society. The strip appeared on the covers of Time, Newsweek, Fortune, and many other major publications, making Adams a cultural commentator on workplace issues. Adams leveraged this newfound platform to expand into books. "The Dilbert Principle" started as a Wall Street Journal guest editorial before becoming a #1 New York Times bestseller. His follow-up, "Dogbert's Big Book of Business," reached #2 on the same list. These successes came not from pursuing fame or wealth as goals, but from systematically creating opportunities and being prepared when luck arrived. As he explained, "I tried one thing after another until something creative struck a chord with the public. Then I reproduced it like crazy." What makes the Dilbert phenomenon remarkable is how Adams transformed what many would consider mediocre talents into extraordinary success. By his own admission, he isn't an exceptional artist, writer, or comedian. However, he combined these ordinary skills with his business experience and technological foresight to create something uniquely valuable. This combination of skills, rather than extraordinary talent in any one area, became his competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Chapter 3: The Voice Crisis and Personal Resilience

In 2005, Scott Adams faced a devastating personal crisis when he suddenly lost his ability to speak normally. Diagnosed with spasmodic dysphonia, a rare neurological condition that causes involuntary spasms of the vocal cords, Adams found himself unable to hold normal conversations despite being able to speak when alone. "I lost the ability to speak to human beings, even though I could speak normally while alone or when talking to my cat," Adams explained. His voice would cut out on certain consonants, making communication nearly impossible. The psychological impact was profound. After seeing multiple specialists who confirmed there was no known cure, Adams fell into a state of isolation and depression. For someone whose professional life included public speaking engagements, this condition threatened not only his social existence but also a significant portion of his livelihood. "Being a ghost in a crowded room," as he described it, Adams experienced firsthand how loneliness could be physically and emotionally debilitating. Yet even in this dark period, Adams applied his systems-based approach to the problem. He created a spreadsheet to track factors that might affect his voice, looking for patterns. He set up Google Alerts for any mention of spasmodic dysphonia in medical literature worldwide. Each morning, he practiced affirmations, repeating "I, Scott Adams, will speak perfectly," maintaining his optimism despite the medical consensus that his condition was incurable. After three years of searching, Adams found a doctor who was pioneering an experimental surgery for his condition. The procedure involved cutting the nerves leading to the vocal cords and rerouting them using nerves borrowed from elsewhere in the neck. It was a risky procedure with no guarantee of success, but Adams proceeded, spending months afterward unable to speak at all while waiting for the nerves to regenerate. Three and a half months after surgery, Adams spoke his first words, though his voice was weak and breathy. Over time, his voice improved beyond his expectations. "Thanks largely to all of my voice training before the operation," he noted, "I ended up with a far more functional voice than ever before." The experience reinforced Adams' belief in the power of persistence and systems over conventional wisdom. Where experts had said recovery was impossible, Adams' methodical approach and refusal to accept defeat led him to a solution that transformed his life.

Chapter 4: The Psychology of Success and Failure

Adams' perspective on success and failure challenges conventional wisdom in profound ways. Rather than viewing failure as something to avoid, he embraces it as an essential resource. "I'm delighted to admit that I've failed at more challenges than anyone I know," he writes. For Adams, failure isn't merely a stepping stone to success; it's the very laboratory where success is created. He systematically extracts value from each failure, accumulating knowledge, skills, and connections that increase his odds of future success. This counterintuitive approach to failure is paired with an equally unconventional view of talent. Adams argues that extraordinary talent isn't necessary for success. Instead, he advocates for what he calls "talent stacking"—becoming merely good (not great) at multiple complementary skills. His formula is straightforward: "Every skill you acquire doubles your odds of success." Adams himself exemplifies this principle, combining mediocre art skills with good (but not great) writing talent, business experience, and early technology adoption to create a unique value proposition. Adams also distinguishes between goals and systems in a way that reshapes how we think about achievement. "Goals are for losers," he provocatively states, explaining that goal-oriented people exist in a perpetual state of pre-success failure until they reach their objective. A systems-based approach, by contrast, focuses on regular actions that increase the likelihood of good outcomes. As he puts it, "A goal is a specific objective that you either achieve or don't sometime in the future. A system is something you do on a regular basis that increases your odds of happiness in the long run." The psychology of success, in Adams' view, involves understanding our cognitive limitations and working around them. He advocates for managing personal energy rather than time, recognizing that high energy makes everything else in life easier. He explains how we often operate with flawed perceptions, particularly when estimating odds. Having experienced unlikely successes throughout his life, Adams encourages readers to maintain optimism even when faced with seemingly impossible challenges. Perhaps most fundamentally, Adams challenges the widely accepted notion that passion drives success. "Passion is bullshit," he bluntly states, arguing that passion is more often the result of success than its cause. Instead of following passion, he recommends developing systems that allow you to pursue opportunities with high potential payoffs, regardless of whether they ignite immediate enthusiasm. In Adams' framework, success comes from strategic positioning and persistent action, not emotional intensity.

Chapter 5: Energy Management and Happiness

At the core of Adams' philosophy is a revolutionary concept: energy, not time, is the fundamental currency of success. While most productivity systems focus on managing time, Adams argues that managing your personal energy yields far greater returns. "I make choices that maximize my personal energy because that makes it easier to manage all of the other priorities," he explains. When energy is high, work quality improves, creativity flows, and social interactions become more positive. Adams breaks down energy management into several key components, starting with physical wellbeing. Diet plays a crucial role—he notes how certain foods, particularly simple carbohydrates, can dramatically deplete energy levels. "The best meal I've ever tasted was a week after dental surgery because I hadn't had solid food for days," he observes, highlighting how our perceptions of food are malleable. Rather than fighting cravings through willpower, Adams suggests reprogramming preferences by viewing your body as a "moist robot" that can be reconfigured through consistent inputs. Exercise forms another pillar of energy management. Adams recommends being active every day, but crucially, never exercising so much that you won't feel like being active tomorrow. This sustainable approach ensures that exercise becomes a habit rather than a chore requiring willpower. He describes how he tricks himself into exercising on low-energy days by simply putting on his workout clothes with full permission to back out—a technique that works 95% of the time. Beyond physical factors, Adams emphasizes the importance of mental energy management. He advocates for simplification in all areas of life, noting that "complicated systems have more opportunities for failure." This applies to everything from diet plans to business strategies. Similarly, he recommends developing routines that eliminate unnecessary decisions, as decision-making depletes mental energy reserves. Perhaps most surprisingly, Adams links happiness directly to energy management. "Happiness is the only useful goal in life," he states, defining happiness as a feeling produced by body chemistry rather than external circumstances. The formula he offers is straightforward: "Eat right. Exercise. Get enough sleep. Imagine an incredible future. Work toward a flexible schedule. Do things you can steadily improve at. Help others. Reduce daily decisions to routine." The relationship between happiness and success is bidirectional in Adams' framework. Energy fuels success, and success—when properly understood—contributes to happiness. By prioritizing energy management, Adams creates a virtuous cycle that propels continuous improvement across all areas of life.

Chapter 6: Skill Acquisition as a Competitive Advantage

Adams' approach to skill development stands in stark contrast to conventional wisdom about specialization and mastery. Rather than pursuing excellence in a single domain, he advocates for developing a diversified portfolio of useful skills. "In California, for example, having one common occupational skill plus fluency in Spanish puts you at the head of the line for many types of jobs," he observes. The formula is simple yet powerful: "Good + Good > Excellent." This "talent stacking" approach creates unique combinations that make a person valuable in the marketplace. Adams himself exemplifies this strategy, combining his "mediocre business skills" with "bad art skills" and "fairly ordinary writing talent" to create the uniquely successful Dilbert empire. None of his individual talents would have been sufficient on their own, but together they created a formidable competitive advantage. Adams identifies several "power skills" that disproportionately increase one's odds of success. Public speaking tops the list—he describes taking a Dale Carnegie course that transformed his ability to connect with audiences. Psychology follows closely, as understanding human behavior provides leverage in virtually every situation. Business writing, accounting, design, conversation skills, and proper grammar round out his recommendations. Each skill acquired not only provides direct benefits but also creates a compounding effect, making it easier to learn additional skills. Learning itself becomes a meta-skill in Adams' system. "The more you know, the more you can know," he explains, noting how each new concept creates mental hooks for future knowledge. He recommends consuming diverse information daily, starting with topics of genuine interest and gradually expanding. This approach builds pattern recognition abilities that can be applied across domains. Perhaps most importantly, Adams emphasizes that skill acquisition should be viewed as a lifelong system rather than a goal-oriented pursuit. "When you accept without necessarily believing that each new skill doubles your odds of success, you effectively hack your brain to be more proactive," he writes. This mindset shift transforms learning from a chore into an opportunity, creating momentum that builds throughout one's career. The beauty of this approach is its accessibility. While extraordinary talent is rare and often genetically determined, acquiring useful skills is within almost anyone's reach. By focusing on skills rather than innate abilities, Adams democratizes success, making it available to anyone willing to invest in continuous improvement.

Chapter 7: Affirmations and the Nature of Luck

One of the most controversial aspects of Adams' success philosophy is his use of affirmations—the practice of writing down desired outcomes multiple times daily. Adams first encountered the concept through a hypnosis classmate who claimed remarkable results. Initially skeptical, he decided to test the method with the affirmation: "I, Scott, will become rich." What followed were two remarkably lucky stock picks that came to him "in separate flashes of something that felt like intuition." Later, Adams tried more affirmations with similarly uncanny results. Most significantly, he began writing "I, Scott Adams, will be a famous cartoonist" despite having no professional cartooning experience. Within a relatively short time, he received a syndication contract for Dilbert. While acknowledging these experiences might be coincidental or the result of selective memory, Adams presents them as part of his larger system for inviting luck into his life. Adams is careful to emphasize that he doesn't believe in magic. Instead, he suggests several possible explanations for why affirmations appear to work: they might increase focus, boost optimism, validate subconscious knowledge, or tap into aspects of reality our limited brains can't fully comprehend. Whatever the mechanism, Adams treats affirmations as a tool for programming one's mind and increasing receptivity to opportunity. This connects to Adams' broader perspective on luck, which he sees as manageable even if not directly controllable. "You can't directly control luck, but you can move from a game with low odds of success to a game with better odds," he explains. The key is creating conditions that maximize the likelihood of positive outcomes over time. Adams likens this approach to playing a slot machine that doesn't require money—just time, focus, and energy to pull the handle repeatedly until you win. Throughout his career, Adams has systematically positioned himself to benefit from lucky breaks. When the Dilbert animated series needed a voice, he was prepared through previous voice training. When newspapers needed content for their business sections, he had already established himself as a workplace commentator. When the Internet emerged as a communication channel, he was among the first cartoonists to embrace it. Perhaps most remarkably, Adams maintains this systems-based approach to luck even in the face of serious adversity. When diagnosed with spasmodic dysphonia, he continued his affirmations—"I, Scott, will speak perfectly"—despite medical consensus that his condition was incurable. Years later, against all odds, he found an experimental surgery that substantially restored his voice. For Adams, this outcome validated his philosophy that persistence and systems can overcome even the longest odds.

Summary

Scott Adams' journey from corporate cubicle to worldwide success offers a refreshing alternative to conventional wisdom about achievement. His core insight—that systems trump goals, and that ordinary skills combined intelligently can yield extraordinary results—provides a blueprint for success that is both practical and accessible. Rather than chasing passion or relying on exceptional talent, Adams demonstrates how managing energy, acquiring useful skills, and creating opportunities for luck can lead to remarkable outcomes even in the face of repeated failures. The true value of Adams' life story lies in its demystification of success. By sharing his numerous failures and explaining how he extracted value from each one, he reveals that achievement is less about innate brilliance and more about persistence, pattern recognition, and strategic positioning. His approach shifts the focus from dramatic breakthroughs to consistent daily practices that compound over time. For anyone feeling trapped by limited talents or discouraged by setbacks, Adams offers liberating perspective: success doesn't require genius or perfect timing—just a willingness to fail productively and the wisdom to develop systems that improve your odds over time.

About Author

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Scott Adams

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.Adams was born in Windham, New York in 1957 and received his Bachelor's degree in Economics from Hartwick College in 1979.He also studied economics and management for his 1986 MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.In recent years, Adams has been hurt with a series of debilitating health problems. Since late 2004, he has suffered from a reemergence of his focal dystonia which has affected his drawing. He can fool his brain by drawing using a graphics tablet. On December 12, 2005, Adams announced on his blog that he also suffers from spasmodic dysphonia, a condition that causes the vocal cords to behave in an abnormal manner. However, on October 24, 2006, he again blogged stating that he had recovered from this condition, although he is unsure if the recovery is permanent. He claims to have developed a method to work around the disorder and has been able to speak normally since. Also, on January 21, 2007, he posted a blog entry detailing his experiences with treatment by Dr. Morton Cooper.Adams is also a trained hypnotist, as well as a vegetarian. (Mentioned in, "Dilbert: A Treasury of Sunday Strips 00).He married Shelly Miles on July 22, 2006.

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