How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big Quotes

“I’ve explained to a number of people my observations about how exercise, diet, and sleep influence mood. The usual reaction is a blank expression followed by a change of topic. No one wants to believe that the formula for happiness is as simple as daydreaming, controlling your schedule, napping, eating right, and being active every day. You’d feel like an idiot for suffering so many unhappy days while not knowing the cure was so accessible. I know from experience that you might accept the idea that daily lifestyle choices are perhaps a small part of what causes your bad moods. But you probably think the majority of your crabbiness is caused by the idiots and sociopaths in your life plus your inexplicable bad luck on any given day. Based on a lifetime of observation, my best estimate is that 80 percent of your mood is based on how your body feels and only 20 percent is based on your genes and your circumstances, particularly your health. Ask”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“Dealing with experts is always tricky. Are they honest? Are they competent? How often are they right? My observation and best guess is that experts are right about 98 percent of the time on the easy stuff but only right 50 percent of the time on anything that is unusually complicated, mysterious, or even new. Years”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“Beware of puns and other clever wordplay. The only people who appreciate puns are the people who can do them. It’s like water polo; it’s hard to appreciate the sport unless you’ve played it. If you don’t know for sure that you’re dealing with hard-core pun lovers, avoid puns completely. Otherwise you’re just begging for a courtesy snort or an eye roll. Humor”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“There’s no denying the importance of practice. The hard part is figuring out what to practice.”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“Reality outside the quantum world of particles and waves might be fixed and objective, at least according to most scientists. But how we think of our reality is clearly subject to regular changes. We’ve all had the experience of meeting someone for the first time and having a wildly inaccurate first impression, which in turn drives the way we act. Later, once you know more about the person, you start behaving differently. The external reality doesn’t change, but your point of view does. In many cases, it’s your point of view that influences your behavior, not the universe. And you can control your point of view even when you can’t change the underlying reality.”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“As it turns out, business writing is all about getting to the point and leaving out all of the noise. You think you already do that in your writing, but you probably don’t. Consider”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“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. On”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“Children are accustomed to a continual stream of criticisms and praise, but adults can go weeks without a compliment while enduring criticism both at work and at home. Adults are starved for a kind word. When you understand the power of honest praise (as opposed to bullshitting, flattery, and sucking up), you realize that withholding it borders on immoral. If you see something that impresses you, a decent respect to humanity insists you voice your praise. “Wow.”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“I’m giving you permission to take care of yourself first, so you can do a better job of being generous in the long run.”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“My bank, Wells Fargo, pitched me on its investment services, and I decided to trust it with half of my investible funds. Trust is probably the wrong term because I only let Wells Fargo have half; I half trusted it. I did my own investing with the other half of my money. The experts at Wells Fargo helpfully invested my money in Enron, WorldCom, and some other names that have become synonymous with losing money. Clearly my investment professionals did not have access to better information than I had. I withdrew my money from their management and have done my own thing since then, mostly in broad-market, unmanaged funds. (That has worked out better.) Folderoo:”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“The directional nature of happiness is one reason it’s a good idea to have a sport or hobby that leaves you plenty of room to improve every year. Tennis”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“humor is a violation of straight-line thinking. Humor”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“When I was a commercial loan officer for a large bank in San Francisco, my boss taught us that you should never make a loan to someone who is following his passion. For example, you don’t want to give money to a sports enthusiast who is starting a sports store to pursue his passion for all things sporty. That guy is a bad bet, passion and all. He’s in business for the wrong reason. My”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“keep in mind that California schools still teach French for some ridiculous reason, so clearly someone hasn’t gotten the commonsense memo. Golf”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“Practice involves putting your consciousness in suspended animation. Practicing is not living. But when you build your skills through an ever-changing sequence of experiences, you’re alive.”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“There was only one creature smarter than all of those doctors put together: the Internet. (Yes, it’s a creature, okay?) I”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“Reality is overrated and impossible to understand with any degree of certainty. What you do know for sure is that some ways of looking at the world work better than others. Pick the way that works, even if you don’t know why. The”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“When I speak of priorities I don’t mean that in terms of what you love the most. 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.”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“You might wince at the fact that I put economics ahead of your family, your friends, and the rest of the world, but there’s a reason. If you don’t get your personal financial engine working right, you place a burden on everyone from your family to the country. Once”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“I learned by observation that people who pursued extraordinarily unlikely goals were overly optimistic at best, delusional at worst, and just plain stupid most of the time.”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“Research shows that loneliness damages the body in much the same way as aging.1, 2 It sure felt that way. Every day felt like losing a fight. 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.”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“My main job for the past few decades has been creating Dilbert. Making comics is a process by which you strip out the unnecessary noise from a situation until all that is left is the absurd-yet-true core.”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“I once wore a professional disguise and infiltrated a high-level business meeting just to get material for the Dilbert comic strip. On”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“Free yourself from the shackles of an oppressive reality. What’s real to you is what you imagine and what you feel. If you manage your illusions wisely, you might get what you want,”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“I don’t read the news to find truth, as that would be a foolish waste of time. 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. Don’t think of the news as information. Think of it as a source of energy.”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“Good health and sufficient money are necessary for a base level of happiness, but you need to be right with your family, friends, and romantic partners to truly enjoy life. The”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“I assume some or even most successful people started out selfishly, but success changes you. It’s not a coincidence that Brad Pitt is helping to build homes after the Hurricane Katrina disaster or that Bill Gates is one of the most important philanthropists of all time. Success does that. The”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“Success always has a price, but the reality is that the price is negotiable. If you pick the right system, the price will be a lot nearer what you’re willing to pay. I”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“If you achieve your goal, you celebrate and feel terrific, but only until you realize you just lost the thing that gave you purpose and direction. Your options are to feel empty and useless, perhaps enjoying the spoils of your success until they bore you, or set new goals and reenter the cycle of permanent presuccess failure.”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“In most groups the craziest person is in control. It starts because no one wants the problems that come from pissing off a crazy person.”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life