THE

DECEMBER, 2015

STURBRIDGETIMES
THE CHRONICLE OF STURBRIDGE AREA LIVING

MAGAZINE

BOOKREVIEW
How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

By Scott Adams
Penguin, 2013
Hardcover 231 pages
List: $7.95 SAazon: $17.10

A recipe for success following chronic failures

f you don't know who Scott Adams is, you may

have heard of Dilbert. Dilbert is the non-hero of
the comic strip that bears that name. It may or
may not be today's most popular strip, but it's hard
to think of another as well known since Gary Larson stopped doing The Far Side.
Dilbert chronicles a bunch of cynical cubicle
slaves as they deal with corporate America. Adams,
drawing on his life in that milieu has become
hugely successful. How he got there is the subject
of his book, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still
Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life.
A book with How to in the title sounds like a
self-help tome. Adams claims it is not. On Page

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180 he writes, This is a good time to remind you

that nothing in this book should be seen as advice.
It's never a good idea to take advice from cartoonists, and that's a hundred times more important if
the topic is health related. I don't know how many
people have died from following the health advice
of cartoonists, but the number probably isn't zero.
One might guess the lawyers told him to put that
in as he makes a heck of a lot of suggestions and if
someone passed away after acting on one, the author could be spending more than a little of his fortune on legal proceedings.
His speculation that at least one person has shuffled off the mortal coil due to following the guid-

ance of cartoonists is dubious. Certainly, more folks

have left us because of the advice of the medical
establishment. Are carbs okay this week?
Though Adams comic strip has a cynical tone,
How to Fail is nothing like that. There is a lot of
self-deprecation that one would expect from the author of Dilbert. He knows he is not a great artist,
but is proud of being an accomplished cartoonist.
As part of his advice to readers, he tells us we
should not have goals. The author writes,, To put
it bluntly, goals are for losers. This seems to go
against the reigning success culture. Adams reasons
that, If you achieve your goal, you celebrate and
CONTINUES PAGE

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Antiques Roadshow-type event coming for New Years Day

By Elisa Krochmalnyckyj
It's a date-day for couples, a fun
way to fill New Year's Day while still
keeping those resolutions, and a
chance to get something appraised
by a noted expert in true Antique
Road Show style -- all while walking around the Central Massachusetts Antique Show at the Sturbridge
Host Hotel.
It's the second annual show,
which last year attracted 1,200
guests and will be held Friday, Jan. 1
from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Although it a big draw for ven-

Book review
FROM PAGE

feel terrific, but only until you realize

you just lost the thing that gave you
purpose and direction. Your options

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dors -- 80 antique dealers are expected to display and sell their wares
-- the show is really geared toward
the ordinary person, said show promoter Dave White.
I would say 90 percent of the
people who came last year were
right off the street, White said.
This is not for dealers, this is for
mom and pop.
That's also true of the appraisals,
which will be handled by wellknown authority Peter Yvanovich.
Each guest will be able to have one
item appraised for free with a $10-

are to feel empty and useless, perhaps

enjoying the spoils of your success
until they bore you, or set new goals
and reenter the cycle of permanent

per-item charge for additional

items. That's not for dealers -dealers don't buy on speculation,
they know what things are worth,
White said. This is for people who
inherited something nice, don't
know what it's worth, and want an
honest appraisal.
Because the event brings so
many shoppers to Sturbridge, it is
sponsored by several local groups,
including the Central Mass South
Chamber of Commerce, Old
Sturbridge Village, the Publick
House, and the town of Sturbridge

presuccess [sic] failure.

Instead of goals, Adams believes
in systems. He came to that conclusion sitting next to a businessman on
a flight to California, when he was
succeeding in the goal of escaping
snowy upstate New York. The fellow
told him his system was to continually look for better options. This
meant he started searching for a new
job as soon as he began one.
Dilberts creator more or less followed his seatmate's advice over the
next several years, in the process no
doubt garnering fodder for the
comic. He recounts failing at every
position yet moving up a rung each
time. Eventually, he was told he
could go no higher, but not because
his incompetence had been discerned. Rather, they were no longer
promoting Caucasian ineptness.
They were now affirmatively advancing groups that had not been
represented in high management.
After all, its not like we cannot find
equal inability among people of
other races.
It is worth noting that the two
large organizations he mentions
most were bureaucracies with many
positions that were little more than
sinecures. One of them, Pacific Bell,
no longer exists, having been swallowed up with much of the busywork
being eliminated.
The other,
Crocker National was also taken over

itself, which this year gave $3,500,

White said.
Events actually begin New Years
Eve from 6 to 8 p.m. with hors
d'oeuvres and entertainment by jazz
Piano Man Glen Hillard. That
$15 pre-show event will allow for
advance viewing and purchasing
and includes admission the following day.
What Friday night does is give
real fanatics -- people really into antiques -- a chance to see the whole
show, and do some advanced dealing, White said. Or, it's a place to >

with deadweight being shed. It is unlikely the author could have pulled
off what he did at a high tech startup.
Was his experience with continuously moving up from job to job a
system or sequential goals? He
should get the benefit of the doubt
on that one, and it leads us to the
subject of affirmations that he addresses.
According to Adams, Affirmations are simply the practice of repeating to yourself what you want to
achieve while imagining the outcome
you want. As he explained it, its
not as new agey as it sounds. He
used this form to great effect, I Scott
Adams, will be a famous cartoonist.
Of course that sounds like a goal and
your man is no loser.
There is a lot more to How to Fail
than systems versus goals and affirmations. Much of it may or may not
be great career or life advice. Scott
Adams is a good writer with a great
sense of humor, but we already knew
that from Dilbert. If you get it in
your stocking, enjoy it. Dont mourn
if you dont. The verdict is similar to
Samuel Johnson on the Giants
Causeway, Worth seeing, but not
worth going to see.

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