Do you wonder how to go from failure to success?

This blog post is based on the book: How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams

The book shares Scott Adam’s story who failed his way to success.

If you are:

• starting your journey toward success

• wondering how to get started

• thinking what you can  do differently

• worrying about failure

Here you will find some new ideas.

Once someone is successful it is not easy to determine if it was due to talent, luck, hard work, or a combination of them.

However there are some strategies to get the most out of your opportunities and make it easier for luck to find you.

It is interesting to look for patterns of others who were also successful.

Success is generally the product of picking a good system and following it until luck finds you.

From Failure to Success: 7 Easy Tips

1- Systems vs Goals

A goal is a specific outcome that you either achieve or not sometime in the future.

A system is something you do regularly that improves your odds and makes you more valuable (ideally).

If you do something every day it’s a system. If you are waiting to achieve it someday in the future it’s a goal.

The Problem with Goals

If you focus on your goals, you exist in a state of nearly continuous failure that you hope will be temporary. This feeling can wear you out.

In time, it can become heavy and uncomfortable. It may even lead you out of the game.

Once you achieve your goal, you feel amazing but only until you realize that you just lost your purpose and direction.

Then, you need to set new goals and re-enter the cycle of presuccess failure.

Every System has a Goal

Most people who work on goals also have a system. This means that every system has a goal even if it is vague. 

If we focus too much on our goal, we feel in a state of continuous presuccess failure at best, and permanent failure at worst if things never work out.

In that case we have to fight the feeling of discouragement at each turn.

When we focus on systems we succeed every time we apply our system in the sense that we did what we intended to do. When we have a system we feel good every time we use it.

This helps to maintain our personal energy in the right direction.

Here are some examples:

• Losing twenty pounds is a goal but eating healthy food is a system.

• Running a marathon in a specific timeframe is a goal but exercising daily is a system.

• Making a million dollars is a goal but being a serial entrepreneur is a system.

Most people who succeed have systems in place that will lead them to success even if they fail in the process.

“For example consider Mark Zuckerberg founder of Facebook.

It’s apparent that his system for success involved studying hard, getting extraordinary grades,  going to a top college -in his case Harvard- and developing a skill set with technology that virtually guaranteed riches in today’s world.

As it turns out his riches came quickly through the explosive growth of Facebook.

But had that not worked out, he would likely be a millionaire through some other start-up or just by being a highly paid technical genius for an existing corporation. 

Zuckerberg’s system (or what I infer was his system) was almost guaranteed to work but no one could have imagined at the time how well.”

What systems could you start using to go from failure to success?

2 – Personal Energy: From Failure to Success

It’s not easy to decide on what to focus our energy.

We want good health, financial freedom, a great social life, love, recreation, travel, family, career, and more.

However, the problem is that the time we spend on one of these areas is time we can’t spend chasing any of the others.

How do we better use our limited amount of energy?

In order to have the most energy you need to:

• eat healthy

• exercise

• sleep well

• allow some time to relax

• keep the stress level low

• have something in your life that makes you feel excited to wake up

If you are dragging yourself without enthusiasm from task to task look at the list above. Which area do you think is responsible for your lack of energy?

A high energy level will allow you to complete your work faster and better.

If you don’t enjoy your day job, it is helpful to have at least one or two side projects that have the potential to set you free.

Do you feel full of energy? Great! You are on the right track!

Are you dragging yourself from one boring activity to the next?

Make a list of what activities boost your energy and excitement and include more of them in your life.

3- Every Skill You Acquire Doubles Your Odds of Success

Learning new skills is one way to make it easier for luck to find you and go from failure to success.

You can raise your market value by being merely good – not extraordinary – at more than one skill.

If you think of each skill in terms of doubling your chances of success, it will steer your actions more effectively than if you assume the benefit of learning a new skill will get lost in the rounding.

4- Happiness is Health Plus Freedom

Scott Adams defines happiness as a feeling you get when your body chemistry is producing pleasant sensations in your mind. That definition is compatible with the science of happiness.

The 80% of happiness is about controlling your body chemistry.

Moreover, happiness depends more on where you are heading than were you are.

Imagine your future being brighter to feel more positive and optimistic. This will also raise your energy level.

Imagining a better future hacks your brain chemistry and provides you with the sensation of happiness today.

Being happy raises your energy level and makes it easier to pursue the steps toward real-world happiness.

Happiness is the natural state for most people whenever they feel healthy, have flexible schedules, and expect the future to be good.

Bad mood is a deficit in imagination, flexible schedule, sleep, diet, and exercise.

5- Luck Can be Managed, Sort of

Luck always plays a role in our success.

If you think about successful people there were a lot of special circumstances that had to happen.

For example:

All success is luck if you track it back to its source.

Steve Jobs needed to both be born with Steve Job’s DNA and meet a fellow named Steve Wozniak.

If Warren Buffett had been born in an earlier time, his natural talents wouldn’t have matched the opportunities.

Every element of your personality, from your perseverance to your risk tolerance to your ambition to your intelligence, is a product of pure chance.

You needed the genes you were born with and the exact experiences of your life to create the person you are with the opportunities you have. 

Even though we cannot change luck, we can move from a game with low odds of success to a game with better odds.

6- Conquer Shyness by Being a Huge Phony (in a good way)

Shyness is caused by an internal feeling that you are not worthy to be in the conversation.

Most people feel awkward in social situations at least some of the time. The person you are talking to may feel as shy as you do.

Observe outgoing people and steal their little tricks if you can.

A good way to overcome shyness is to imagine that you are acting instead of interacting. For a shy person it may be easier to act like someone else instead of acting like himself.

Feeling comfortable in social situations takes practice. The more you put yourself in potentially embarrassing situations, the easier they will become.

Success builds confidence and confidence suppresses shyness.

If you can’t control your shyness using these tips, wait until you’re rich and famous, the shyness might leave on its own.

Here are more tips on How to Overcome Shyness.

7 – Fitness is the Lever that Moves the World

If you are active everyday, all of the other elements of fitness will come together naturally without the need to use your limited supply of willpower.

When you are active everyday and your body feels good about it, it will become easier to increase your exercise level than it would be to stop it.

Look out for a natural and easy way to evolve into a fitness routine that works for your specific brain and body. This is a good way to transition from failure to success.

This could mean anything from playing basketball to cleaning the garage to taking a walk. Any physical activity counts, and none is better than the other.

In the long run any system that depends on your willpower will fail.

In conclusion, don’t be scared of failing.

Failures are excellent learning opportunities that can lead to success.

What systems could you put in place to increase your chances of success? Let me know in the comments below.

If you want to know more about Scott Adams, here is the link to his blog.