How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life
by Scott Adams
Narrated by Andrew Baldwin
Why Listen to This Audiobook?
Scott Adams built a globally syndicated comic strip by treating every failure as a system to exploit — and he's annoyingly convincing about it.
- Great if you want: contrarian career wisdom from a genuinely unusual life
- Listening experience: conversational and brisk — feels like a sharp podcast episode
- Narration: Baldwin's dry, deadpan delivery suits Adams' self-deprecating tone well
- Skip if: Adams' confident provocateur style grates on you quickly
About This Audiobook
Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, has failed at a striking number of things — corporate careers, restaurants, investments, inventions — and built his case for success on the wreckage. His counterintuitive argument is that goals are for losers and systems are for winners, that passion is advice given to people who are already succeeding, and that deliberately combining mediocre skills into a useful combination beats trying to be the best at any one thing. The book is part memoir, part productivity argument, entirely irreverent.
Andrew Baldwin narrates Adams's self-deprecating voice with a dry humor that suits the material perfectly. The book's informal, direct quality — it reads like someone genuinely sharing lessons rather than selling a philosophy — translates well to audio, and Baldwin's unhurried pacing lets the more counterintuitive arguments land without rushing past them. At just under nine hours, this is an efficient and entertaining listen that will resonate differently depending on where you are in your own career.