Win Bigly

The New York Times bestseller that explains one of the most important perceptual shifts in the history of humankind

Scott Adams was one of the earliest public figures to predict Donald Trump s election. The mainstream media regarded Trump as a lucky clown, but Adams best known as the guy who created Dilbert -- recognized a level of persuasion you only see once in a generation. We re hardwired to respond to emotion, not reason, and Trump knew exactly which emotional buttons to push.
 
The point isn t whether Trump was right or wrong, good or bad. Adams goes beyond politics to look at persuasion tools that can work in any setting the same ones Adams saw in Steve Jobs when he invested in Apple decades ago. Win Bigly is a field guide for persuading others in any situation or resisting the tactics of emotional persuasion when they re used on you. 
 
This revised edition features a bonus chapter that assesses just how well Adams foresaw the outcomes of Trump s tactics with North Korea, the NFL protesters, Congress, and more.

Win Bigly taught me how to persuade my boss to treat me with slightly less contempt.
Dilbert

I am deeply impressed by Scott Adams. I don t know how anyone can write so many pages without using the word doth.
William Shakespeare

I recommend this book to all mammals, big and small. It once turned a mole into a cheetah. I saw it with my own eyes.
Lord Byron

If you only read one book this year, that s one more than I did.
Mark Twain

Scott taught me how to create a persuasive nickname for myself.
Alexander the Great

If I m being honest, Win Bigly is better than all other books and at least one play.
Abe Lincoln

Win Bigly helped me escape from the secret room beneath the author s shed.
Kristina Basham

My life improved tremendously after I finished this book. If you ever write a book, I bet you ll feel good when you re done writing it too. Hey, why is my shed door open?
S. Adams

Introduction (Where I Prime You for the Rest)

'm a trained hypnotist.

And I'm going to tell you about the spookiest year of my life. It happened between June 2015 and November 2016. Okay, that's a little more than a year.

Everything you are about to read in this book is true, as far as I know. I don't expect you to believe all of it. (Who could?) But I promise it is true, to the best of my knowledge.

I've waited decades to deliver the message in this book. I waited because the world wasn't ready, but also because the messenger-yours truly-didn't have the skill to deliver it right. The story was too hard to tell. But it was important, and it needed to be told.

And so I waited.

And I learned.

And I practiced.

And I waited some more.

Then it happened.

On June 16, 2015, Donald J. Trump rode a golden elevator in Trump Tower to the lobby, where he announced his candidacy for president of the United States. Like most observers at the time, I didn't fully understand what I was seeing. It wasn't until the first Republican primary debate that I realized what was happening right before our eyes. Trump was no ordinary politician. He was no ordinary businessperson either. In fact, he wasn't ordinary in any sense of the word.

Trump is what I call a Master Persuader. That means he has weapons-grade persuasion skills. Based on my background in that field, I recognized his talents early. And after watching him in action during the election, I have to say that Trump is the most persuasive human I have ever observed.

President Trump carried those persuasion skills into the White House, where his supporters say he has gotten a lot done, and his critics say he hasn't. Supporters pointed to a decrease in illegal immigration, a strong stock market (at this writing), high consumer confidence, progress fighting ISIS, a solid Supreme Court nominee, and a stronger-than-expected foreign policy game. Critics saw "chaos" in the administration, slow progress on health-care reform, and maybe some kind of nefarious connections with Russia.

President Trump's critics (and mine) asked me how I could call the president a Master Persuader when his public approval levels were in the cellar. The quick answer is that low approval didn't stop him from winning the presidency. And according to his supporters, it didn't stop him from getting things done on the job. His persuasion skills, combined with the power of the presidency, were all he needed. Keep in mind that disapproving of Trump's style and personality is a social requirement for people who long for a more civil world. Effectiveness is a separate issue from persuasive skill.

But here's the fun part: I also believed that Trump-the Master Persuader-was going to do far more than win the presidency. I expected Trump to rip a hole in the fabric of reality so we could look through it to a deeper truth about the human experience. And he did exactly that.

But not everyone noticed. That's why I made it the theme of this book.

The common worldview, shared by most humans, is that there is one objective reality, and we humans can understand that reality through a rigorous application of facts and reason. This view of the world imagines that some people have already achieved a fact-based type of enlightenment that is compatible with science and logic, and they are trying to help the rest of us see the world the "right" way. As far as I can tell, most people share that interpretation of the world. The only wrinkle with that worldview is that we all think we are the enlightened ones. And we assume the people who disagree with us just need better facts, an