(Bloomberg Opinion) -- What do you do if you dream of being a cartoonist but you live far from the action? You put yourself into a position to allow luck to shine. That’s what Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, did by moving away from the hinterlands of New York state to San Francisco, where he kept “trying to increase the odds of getting lucky.”
While working in the corporate world, Adams used his spare time to come up with the strip that would eventually become Dilbert. He shopped it around, and was rejected by almost every publishing house and syndicator. One of the people he approached encouraged him to keep trying, and sent him a reminder a year after their initial conversation. That encouragement motivated Adams him to send out another round of his work to potential syndicators. That, in turn, brought him an offer from Universal (now known as Andrews McMeel Publishing).
Scott Adams is also the author of many books, including “How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life,” and most recently “Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don’t Matter.”
His favorite books are here; a transcript of our conversation is posted here.
Next week, we speak with Tao Group’s Ralph Scamardella, head chef and partner at one of the biggest-fine dining restaurant groups.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Max Berley at mberley@bloomberg.net
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Barry Ritholtz is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He founded Ritholtz Wealth Management and was chief executive and director of equity research at FusionIQ, a quantitative research firm. He is the author of “Bailout Nation.”
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