Scott Adams has likely failed at more things than anyone you or I have met or even heard of. So how did he go from hapless office worker and serial failure to the creator of Dilbert, one of the world’s most famous syndicated comic strips, in just a few years?

In “How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big,” Adams shares the game plan he’s followed since he was a teen. Here are 7 things I took away ‘from the Adams book:

• Do creative work first. “The way I approach the problem of multiple priorities is by focusing on just one main metric: my energy. I make choices that maximize my personal energy because that makes it easier to manage all the other priorities. One of the most important tricks for maximizing your productivity involves matching your mental state to the task.”
• Don’t expect people to be reasonable. “If your view of the world is that people use reason for their important decisions, you are setting yourself up for a life of frustration and confusion. You’ll find yourself continually debating people and never winning, except in your own mind. Few things are as destructive and limiting as a worldview that assumes people are mostly rational.”
• Being selfish can be good. “The most important form of selfishness involves spending time on your fitness, eating right, pursuing your career, and still spending quality time with your family and friends.”
• Withholding Praise is Immoral. “Children are accustomed to a continual stream of criticism and praise, but adults can go weeks without a compliment while enduring criticism both at work and at home. Adults are starved for kind words.”
• Don’t read the news to find the truth. “I read the news to broaden my exposure to new topics and patterns that make my brain more efficient in general and to enjoy myself, because learning interesting things increases my energy and makes me feel optimistic.”
• System trumps goals. “One should have a system instead of a goal. The system-versus-goals model can be applied to most human endeavors. In the world of dieting, losing twenty pounds is a goal, but eating right is a system. In the exercise realm, running a marathon in under four hours is a goal, but exercising daily is a system. In business, making a million dollars is a goal, but being a serial entrepreneur is a system.”
• Every adult should gain a working knowledge of some skills. “I wouldn’t expect you to become a master of any, but mastery isn’t necessary. Luck has a good chance of finding you if you become merely good in most of these areas. They are:

1. Public speaking
2. Psychology
3. Business Writing
4. Accounting, Design (the basics)
5. Conversation
6. Overcoming Shyness
7. Second language
8. Golf
9. Proper grammar
10. Persuasion
11. Technology ( hobby level) and
12. Proper voice technique.

If you haven’t read the book, you should.

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