I recently read the book how to fail at almost everything and still win big by author Scott Adams Scott is a creator of the Dilbert comic and he's a Serial entrepreneur I think it's pretty safe to say that he's reached a high level of success and he knows what he's talking about so I read his book looking for insights on how to approach my career and this was the biggest Insight that I found goals are for losers you're probably thinking who what I've lived my whole life trying to focus on goals yeah me too I've been told by the experts set long-term goals that's the only way you'll succeed in life but Scott says if you study people who succeed you will see that most of them follow systems not goals Scott defines goals as reach it and be done objectives and systems as what you do on a regular basis with the general expectation of improving here's some specific examples he provides says quote in the world of dieting losing 20 lb is a goal but eating right is a system in the exercise realm running a marathon in under 4 hours is a goal but exercising daily is a system in business making a million dollars is a goal but being a Serial entrepreneur that's a system goals are rigid Pursuits that shut off your awareness of other opportunities but systems are flexible and they leave you open to be curious new ways and better ways of doing things but with all this goal bashing we still need to realize that goals are insanely useful but only in narrow simplistic and predictable Pursuits this includes games that are constructed by man and tasks that are short in duration have a clear purpose but goals are terrible for long Endeavors like personal health and Career Success this is because changes happen so fast in today's world you may have your head down trying to pursue a goal say trying to obtain a certain position within your company but by doing so you're probably missing five better opportunities and five better companies for career advancement Scott urges us that instead of putting the blinders on and expecting a certain result at the end of months or years of work instead focus on systems systems are skill-based they allow you to transfer skills to Future projects and Endeavors approach each new opportunity with the question How likely is this going to improve my broad range of skills and increase my odds of success although most of Scott's Endeavors could be considered failures from the standpoint of goals they were actually successes from the standpoint of systems because they gave him skills that transferred to the next career move and allowed him to be successful in the long run making comics and making millions of people laugh every day his dozens of failures early in life with his entrepreneurial projects like computer games file transfer software meditation program they were all considered failures when looking at it from the gold go standpoint but from the system standpoint they gave him the skill of hustle which allowed him to put in the long hours necessary to get his comic off the ground in the following years his failure to move up the ranks at a certain level at a bank that he was working at allowed him to develop enough business skills to Market and manage his comic business in his time at a big corporate telephone company it didn't really lead to him being a CEO or anything Grand but it gave him all the material for his Dilbert comic which in turn obviously was a useful thing ultimately systems lead to success because success is luck multiplied by the skills you obtain for example there are many kids today that have probably much better programming skills than Bill Gates had but Bill Gates happen to be born at a certain time in history and have access to computers when other people didn't that's just plain lucky and because of that luck he made billions and billions of dollars but having certain skills allowed him to capitalize on the opportunity that was presented to them when you focus on systems you accelerate skill development and you leave yourself open to notice opportunities to Pivot and make yourself more likely to be successful the openness of systems increases the odds of luck finding you and success coming your way that was the core message that most resonated with me from Scott's book but I highly recommend getting his book and seeing what experience of his can most help you advance your career he has many nuggets of wisdom nestled in this book if you would like a one-page PDF summary of the insights that I gathered from Scott's book just click the link below and i' be happy to email it to you if you're already subscribed to the free productivity game newsletter this PDF will already be in your inbox thanks for watching