A must read for all those who want to be successful in life. In other words, everyone.
Scott Adams might seems like a name you would have heard before. It’s true, Scott is the creator of one of the most famous comic strips in the world – DILBERT.
In this book Scott talks about life experiences on how he failed at almost everything but still continued to struggle to get to the realisation of his dream. There’s a chapter which details around 22 different things he tried his hands on before Dilbert happened. Lets ask ourselves how many different things have we tried ourselves to realise our dreams? May be none! (get on it)
Before the computers evolved, he used to draw all comic strips himself and during those days he once suffered from a stiff finger and that became career threatening. When he did not find any cure to his problem in the medical world he actually cured it himself. Talk about determination. Similarly, when he became famous, he had a similar problem with his voice. To know how that turned out, you should read this book.
In my opinion, this book is combination of Scott’s life lessons and a self help book. His life habits at personal and professional levels are a great inspiration. He even talks about daily eating, exercising and sleep habits.
One very important thing that he emphasises on, all over the book, is that we should focus on having a system in place rather than striving to achieve a particular goal. For example, walking 5 kms daily is goal but exercising daily is a system. He justifies his advice beautifully. I have been following this philosophy for a while now hence I relate to what he said.
In general he suggests everyone aspiring to be an entrepreneur should acquire the following attributes:
- Public Speaking
- Psychology
- Business Writing
- Accounting (basics)
- Design (basics)
- Conversation skills
- Overcoming Shyness
- Second language (for Indians I suggest we look for 3rd or 4th language)
- Golf (in Indian context there is no equivalent sport which is used for business conversations)
- Right grammar usage
- Persuasion skills
- Technology, some understanding atleast.
- Proper voice technique for ensuring you get the lister’s attention, always.
I suggest this book be read by all people in the sales and business development profile. Others should also pick it up for inspirational reasons.
Happy Reading! 🙂