This week, Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, and author of How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life, and most recently of Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don’t Matter.
Adams describes how he managed to put himself into a position to allow luck to shine on him; He moved away from upstate New York to San Francisco, where he kept “trying to increase the odds of getting lucky.”
He created Dilbert in his spare time, and shopped it around, getting rejected by nearly every publishing house and syndicator. One person he reached out to encouraged him to keep trying — sending a reminder to Adams a year after their initial conversation. That encouragement led to his eventually sending out another round of comics to potential syndicators, eventually receiving an offer from Universal (now Andrews McMeel Publishing).
Adams describes himself as “to the left of Bernie Sanders,” but was intrigued by President Trumps unique communication skills int he first GOP debate. He recognized the potential Trump had to win both the nomination and the 2016 Presidency when that idea looked like the longest of long shots. You can find him on Twitter pushing back against those who fail to recognize the nature of Trump’s communications.
His favorite books are here; transcript of our conversation is posted here.
You can stream/download the full conversation, including the podcast extras on iTunes, Bloomberg, Overcast, and Stitcher. Our earlier podcasts can all be found at iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast, and Bloomberg.
Next week, we speak with Tao Group‘s Ralph Scamardella, who is head chef and partner at one of the biggest fine dining restaurant groups in the country.
Scott Adams Favorite Books
Impossible to Ignore: Creating Memorable Content to Influence Decisions by Carmen Simon
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini
Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade by Robert Cialdini
Scott Adams Books
How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life by Scott Adams
Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don’t Matter by Scott Adams
The Dilbert Principle: A Cubicle’s-Eye View of Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads & Other Workplace Afflictions by Scott Adams
Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain! by Scott Adams
God’s Debris: A Thought Experiment by Scott Adams
