Goals are for Losers!

"Success is entirely accessible even if you happen to be a huge screw-up 95% of the time."

According to the creator of Dilbert, Scott Adams, success is about failing your way to the top. In his new book, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, the author reminisces about his odd jobs and the career path deviations he has taken, all of which helped take him to the top.

Scott has a unique view separate from most talk show hosts and career gurus who tout the benefits of setting goals and chasing after them to achieve success. Scott's approach is more basic, pretty much go for anything and everything and allow yourself the freedom to fail. It is in the failure that you learn from your mistakes, pontificate where you went wrong, adjust and try a new path. Eventually those new paths lead to success.

In his book, Scott argues that "following your passion" and "setting goals" are great for short-term but in the long run can end up leading you down a road to your own destruction. Passion and goals are great to get started, help ignite the initial fire but in the long run when those goals don't happen or deadlines keep getting pushed back due to roadblocks, passion starts to wane and frustration starts to set in.

Remember that New Year's Eve resolution to lose ten pounds and hit the gym everyday with enthusiasm? Did it happen? Or did the pounds stick and the desire fade?

In this regard, Scott has a point. Goals and passion don’t always make for success.
 
So what should you do if you want to be successful? Scott admits he's had more failures than successes in life and he proudly wears the badge. Hey, even wrote a book about it. His advice: "If your current get-rich project fails, take what you learned and try something else. Keep repeating until something lucky happens. The universe has plenty of luck to go around; you just need to keep your hand raised until it is your turn. It helps to see failure as a road and not a wall."

 Goal. Passion. Failure. Success. Repeat.

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My two cents: I highly recommend this book for people in sales and any other profession.

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big  by Scott Adams is available now from Portfolio, a member Penguin Group.

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