Five Things I Learned About Life from this Book About Donald Trump
My college room mate had Dilbert toilet paper. That was how I first heard of Scott Adams – wiping my arse with his name.
And so it was a surprise to me (and I think most other people) when he popped back into my field of consciousness in 2015 commenting on the 2016 Presidential election (more on this later).
Before that all kicked off properly, I was listening to an interview with Adams on a podcast by my good friend Thor Holt (it was the Write with Courage Podcast which also interviewed a number of other important thinkers). He said something funny about Islamic State, hot weather and AK-47s which still makes me chuckle today.
On the recommendation of many others, I read Scott Adams’ book ‘How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big’. His unique outlook on life (enter the ‘Moist Robot’ hypothesis) struck a chord with me (read my review here).
So when Win Bigly: Pesuasion in a World Where Fact’s Don’t Matter came out, I had to read it. What you see here is a summary of what I learned:
1. We’re All Watching Different Movies
Have you ever been in a situation when you couldn’t believe that someone couldn’t see things from your point of view? Your position was so rational, so self-evident. How could they not agree with you?
I have. Sometimes it feels like I’m in this situation every day. Understanding that you’re seeing your own movie (think version of reality) vs. other people’s movies helps me to understand that not everyone sees things the same as me. And it can sometimes help to try and watch the other movies first before reaching your own conclusion.
The Trump presidency is like this – some people think he’s the saviour, others see him as the Antichrist. But we’re all in the same reality. What they are seeing is a different movie of the same events playing out in their heads.
2. You Can Be Right About Everything and People will Still Hate You
Scott Adams was one of the first people to predict a Trump Presidency. And he consistently stuck to his guns right through the whole campaign, even when some media outlets were giving Donald Trump a less than 10% chance of becoming the U.S. President.
But Adams saw something hardly anyone else did – that Trump was a master persuader. This is what Win Bigly is about incidentally.
So you’d be thinking that Scott Adams would ride off into the sunset, a worldwide celebrity at predicting the future. Right?
Wrong – he’s been shunned by friends, peered and called a Neo Nazi.
3. You Are Being Persuaded All the Time
Turn on the TV and you see an ad. Persuasion.
Watch the news. Persuasion
Read a billboard. Persuasion
Talk to a (skilled) salesman. Persuasion
“Is that a large portion of fries?”. Persusasion
Once you read this book, you’ll not only understand Donald Trump’s skill in persuasion, you’ll detect when you’re being persuaded and maybe even learn how to be more persuasive yourself. What fun!
4. Building a Talent Stack is Like Holding All the Trump Cards and Cheating at the Same Time
If you want to know more about what a talent stack is, you need to read ‘How to Fail…’ In short, a talent stack is a collection of things that you’re quite good at. But put them together and you’re a superhero.
It’s the opposite of being a specialist or the GOAT at something. You’re wonderfully mediocre at lots of things. But when you add them together – KABOOM – the magic happens.
Think about it like this. If you:
- Learn Chinese
- Have an MBA
- Learn public speaking
- Travel throughout Asia on a touring bike
Are you more or less likely to succeed in international business?
5. Learning Persuasion is a Necessary Skill for Fatherhood and Business
Now I understand persuasion better, I’m a much better father. I didn’t learn all I know about persuasion from this book. But if you read everything in the ‘further reading’ section, you’d be well ahead of the game.
Imagine being able to persuade your kid to jump into the deep end of the pool. Or being able to teach your four year old daughter how to self hypnotise into calmness. Would you be a better or worse Dad?
Or if you work in sales and services like I do, imagine being able to detect what your customer wants and tailoring the products around them. Or knowing how to ask your assistant to take on a new piece of work for you. That would be cool, wouldn’t it?
Aaaand you know what else I learned from Scott Adams – this time from his blog. That if you want people to buy their book, you ask them to. And he does.
So buy his book. It’s good and taught me all the stuff you see on this blog post.
And I have a book, did you know that? So please buy it. It’s good – lots of people have read it and told me so. Get it here.
