How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

by Scott Adams

I learned that loneliness isn’t fixed by listening to other people talk. You can cure your loneliness only by doing the talking yourself and—most important—being heard.

Failure is a resource that can be managed.

Chances are the best job for you won’t become available at precisely the time you declare yourself ready. Your best bet,

was to always be looking for the better deal. The better deal has its own schedule.

your job is not your job; your job is to fin...

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.

goals are a reach-it-and-be-done situation, whereas a system is something you do on a regular basis with a reasonable expectation that doing so will get you to a better place in your life.

The minimum requirement of a system is that a reasonable person expects it to work more often than not. Buying lottery tickets is not a system no matter how regularly you do it.

If you want success, figure out the price, then pay it. It sounds trivial and obvious, but if you unpack the idea it has extraordinary power.

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.

You can love your family more than you love your job and still spend all day working so your family has food and opportunities.

Priorities are the things you need to get right so the things you love can thrive.

It’s hard to imagine any business or social activity that doesn’t require a basic understanding of how the human brain perceives the world.

Quality is not an independent force in the universe; it depends on what you choose as your frame of reference.

It is tremendously useful to know when people are using reason and when they are rationalizing the irrational. You’re wasting your time if you try to make someone see reason when reason is not influencing the decision.

basic understanding of accounting is necessary to be a fully effective adult in a modern society, even if you never do any actual accounting on your own.