Scott Adams: The Hardest Sell: Convincing Someone You’re Not What You Used to Be

It’s Scott’s 3rd time on the podcast. In the first interview, he was “the creator of Dilbert.” A famous cartoonist. The second time he was still “the creator of Dilbert” and a hypnosis/persuasion student. Now (appearance #3), Scott Adams is something new. He’s reinvented. And no longer standing on the footbridge between old self and new self. He’s the author of “Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don’t Matter” and infamous for predicting Trump’s win… two years before election day.

His prediction was spot on.

Before Trump raced Hillary. Before he beat Ted Cruz in the primaries. And before he beat 18 other “more experienced” Republican candidates (Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Ben Carson, and the ones who’s names I can’t remember.)

Scott could name each persuasion trick Trump was using. His tone, the stories he told, the way he made you remember him, his thoughts, plans, policies, tweets. And how he’s still doing it to us today.

I wanted to know how he knew. But I also wanted to know how he changes his career. And his life.

“I came in through the side entrance,” he said.

“Why?”

““Look how hard it is to change to fields. And so so dramatically. The hardest sell is convincing someone you’re not what you’ve been for decades… Or convincing them that you have more to offer,” he said.

“Right.” And then I realized we hadn’t even talked about cartooning. And the interview was almost done.

He taught me the most important rule for persuading anyone of anything: facts don’t matter.

“What makes news and what makes people care is if you do something in a different way,” he said. New doesn’t matter. New and different matters.

“In this case, I’m talking about politics, but I’m talking about persuasion. That was a different way. That immediately gets people’s attention. And they say, ‘Oh a new thing. Finally, there’s a new thing. Let’s talk about the new thing.”

In this episode, Scott teaches you that it’s possible change someone’s perspective of you. That you can break free of the titles and jobs you hold and become who you really feel you are.

He’ll walk you through how he did it… how President Trump did it, and how you can do it, too.

James Altucher is the author of the bestselling book Choose Yourself, editor at The Altucher Report and host of the popular podcast, The James Altucher Show, which takes you beyond business and entrepreneurship by exploring what it means to be human and achieve well-being in a world that is increasingly complicated. Join the 136,000 readers getting a dose of my best and controversial content. Join here.