The Bear Reminder
A minor review of How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, by Scott Adams.
I think when your passion starts to take over…the world changes. I returned to my office as the episode of The Bear finished and started typing immediately. It reminded me of the moment when I made the decision to start writing professionally, and I’m sure the moment any entrepreneur crosses over that imaginary line from fear to belief is memorable.
The episode, episode 4 season 2, when Marcus travels to Denmark to learn from a seasoned Luca. Within the episode there is a moment where the conversation takes a turn in the direction of experience, and confidence becomes the matrix of being an expert at something. Marcus just flat out asks Luca how he got so good. Luca’s response is “I failed. I failed a lot.”.
This post isn’t about The Bear, an excellent series though, it’s about a book that turned my life into an active entrepreneur – How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, by Scott Adams. It’s really like a journey of Scott Adam’s entrepreneurial experience. Similarly, when Luca shared the memory of thinking he was the greatest chef, pride showing through and through, he shares that once he met another great chef, greater even, his humbling experience met with failure head on. The same happened with Mr. Adams in his adventures. That’s what we will share in this article, plus a few quotes to share the realness of the entrepreneurial adventure.
A dedication to failure as a system.
Stage One, find consistency. Consistency is the bedrock of truth. Scott shares his wisdom in one line.
“money distorts truth like a hippo in a thong”
Money can solve all sorts of problems, but it cannot tell the truth, that is on us. People.
BUT and there is a BUT.
Perfection is our nemesis. We can train. We can study. We can rise to the pinnacle of greatness in our industries. Consistency is the truth teller in these stages. If you put the work in, you should make it. Before the pinnacle stage, however, we often fail or become obsessed with our mediocre performance. Mind you, most people outside our heads do not see this or understand this. But it’s there.
Going back to a detail in the book. Mr. Adams mentions the words “fail” and/or “failure” 93 times. This book is truly about failing up past the level of incompetence all the way to success. Which is what the book is more about: creating a system to extract the most out of failure anytime it happens. That’s the fun part. Once you have fear of failure (FOF) under your thumb and crushing its will anytime it raises its head the rest is just better planning moving forward.
Stage two, find consistency within failure. It’s one thing to fail once and give up. There are many business owners that do that every day. According to Entrepreneur magazine the failure rate in the first year is 20% (Carter, 2021). That rate climbs ridiculously up to year ten.
Finding consistency in extracting the most out of that failure is paramount to re-energize the passion inside. Finding that system will be and should be a desired outcome. Goals on the other hand are once and done situations. I know I do not want to start a business once, or create a happy client just once, so goals should be written out of every business plan. Scott even mentions “goals are for losers”. Believe it.
Stage three of this thought, gain consistency, repeat it, probably fail once or twice, gain consistency again, and learn how to repeat it again. Rinse and repeat. A final share, as to not ruin the book for anybody.
“If you learn to appreciate the power of systems over goals, it might lower the price of success just enough to make it worth a go.”
Enjoy reading friends. Marcus
References
Adams, S. (2014). How to Fail at Almost Everthing and Still Win Big. New York: Portfolio/Penguin.
Annaud, J.-J. (Director). (2023). The Bear [Motion Picture].
Carter, T. (2021, January 3). The True Failure Rate of Small Businesses. Retrieved from Entrepreneur : https://www.entrepreneur.com/starting-a-business/the-true-failure-rate-of-small-businesses/361350
