How Scott Adams transformed workplace frustration into one of the world’s most beloved comic strips
In the corporate world of the 1980s, a frustrated office worker sat in seemingly endless meetings, doodling caricatures of his managers and coworkers to stay awake. Those idle sketches would eventually evolve into one of the most successful comic strips of all time: Dilbert.
Scott Adams never set out to be a cartoonist. His original dream was to climb the corporate ladder and become a successful executive. Instead, his experiences in the business world would provide the perfect fodder for a comic strip that resonated with millions of cubicle dwellers worldwide. As Adams himself puts it in the quote above, “Most success springs from an obstacle or failure. I became a cartoonist largely because I failed in my goal of becoming a successful executive.”
This is the story of how corporate disappointment transformed into creative triumph—and how Dilbert went from conference room doodles to a cultural phenomenon that would forever change how we view office life.
The Making of a Corporate Misfit
Born on June 8, 1957, in Windham, New York, Scott Adams was the valedictorian of his high school class—though he later joked it was only because “the other 39 people in my class couldn’t spell valedictorian.” His academic success led him to earn a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Hartwick College in 1979 and later an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley in 1986.
Far from pursuing art, Adams was firmly on a business track. His first corporate role began in 1979 at Crocker National Bank in San Francisco, where he held various positions over eight years, including bank teller (where he was robbed at gunpoint twice), computer programmer, financial analyst, product manager, and commercial lender.
In 1986, Adams moved to Pacific Bell, where he would work for the next nine years in various roles involving technology and finance. It was during his time at Pacific Bell that the seeds of Dilbert were planted—though Adams couldn’t have imagined just how dramatically his life would change as a result.
Despite his ambitions, Adams found himself stuck in what he described as “humiliating and low-paying jobs” for years. These experiences, while frustrating at the time, would later provide the perfect inspiration for his satirical take on corporate life.
The Birth of Dilbert
While working at Pacific Bell, Adams began doodling during meetings to stay engaged. The character who would eventually become Dilbert first appeared in these business presentations—a bespectacled office worker with a tie that curled upward. The character was a composite of Adams’ coworkers over the years, embodying the frustrations and absurdities of corporate life that he witnessed daily.
The name “Dilbert” came from Adams’ former boss, Mike Goodwin. Dogbert, Dilbert’s cynical pet, was originally named “Dildog” and was loosely based on Adams’ family’s deceased pet beagle, Lucy.
Determined to pursue cartooning despite having little formal artistic training, Adams woke up at 4 AM each day to work on his comic strips before heading to his day job. He submitted his work to various publications, including The New Yorker and Playboy, facing consistent rejection. However, an encouraging letter from a fan convinced him to keep trying.
In 1989, while still employed at Pacific Bell, Adams’ persistence paid off when United Media syndicated Dilbert. His first payment was a modest monthly royalty check of $368.62. Despite this early success, Adams continued working his day job for financial security and to gather fresh material for his comics.
Adams’ journey illustrates a critical point about creativity: sometimes our greatest creative breakthroughs come not from pursuing artistic ambitions directly, but from channeling our frustrations with the status quo into something new and resonant.
Life in Corporate America: The Perfect Inspiration
Adams’ years at Pacific Bell provided a wealth of material for Dilbert. The strip’s satirical take on corporate culture—with its pointy-haired bosses, mind-numbing meetings, and soul-crushing cubicles—resonated deeply with office workers who recognized their own experiences in Dilbert’s world.
What made Dilbert unique was its specific focus on the workplace. While earlier office-based comics existed, none had so precisely captured the peculiar bureaucracy, jargon, and absurdity of modern corporate life. Adams had found his niche by writing about what he knew best—the daily frustrations of being a cog in the corporate machine.
In what would prove to be a brilliant move, Adams began publishing his email address in the comic strip in 1993, becoming the first syndicated cartoonist to do so. This direct line to readers provided him with countless anecdotes and ideas from other office workers, ensuring his material remained authentic and relatable.
The authenticity of Dilbert came from Adams’ lived experience. He wasn’t imagining the corporate absurdities—he was living them daily, even as his strip gained popularity. This dual existence as both satirist and subject gave the comic its unmistakable ring of truth.
The End of Corporate Life
As Dilbert grew in popularity, appearing in 100 newspapers by 1991 and 400 by 1994, Adams maintained his day job at Pacific Bell. There’s a certain irony that the creator of corporate America’s most biting satire continued to work in the environment he so cleverly mocked.
On June 30, 1995, Adams’ corporate career came to an end when he was laid off from Pacific Bell. According to Adams, he was told the layoff was due to “budget constraints,” though some have speculated whether his role as a corporate satirist may have played a part. When asked about it, Adams characteristically quipped, “I can’t read minds, so your guess is as good as mine.”
Whatever the reason, the timing couldn’t have been better. By this point, Dilbert had reached 800 newspapers, and Adams was ready to become a full-time cartoonist. What had begun as a side project born of corporate frustration had become a sustainable career.
In hindsight, Adams’ layoff seems almost poetic—the final push he needed to fully embrace his accidental career as a cartoonist. What appeared to be another corporate failure became the catalyst for his complete transition to creative success.
Dilbert Becomes a Global Phenomenon
In 1996, Adams published his first business book, “The Dilbert Principle,” which expounded on his concept that “the most ineffective workers are systematically moved to the place where they can do the least damage: management.” The book became a New York Times bestseller, remaining on the list for 43 weeks and selling over a million copies.
By the late 1990s, Dilbert had become a cultural touchstone. In 1997, Adams won the National Cartoonists Society’s prestigious Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist. In 1999, Dilbert was adapted into an animated television series on UPN, with Adams serving as executive producer alongside “Seinfeld” writer Larry Charles.
At its peak, Dilbert appeared in 2,000 newspapers across 65 countries and was translated into 25 languages. The comic strip’s popularity extended beyond print media, with Dilbert becoming one of the first syndicated comics to appear on the internet in 1995.
What began as doodles in corporate meetings had transformed into a global brand that included dozens of books, merchandise, a website, and even a short-lived food product line. The corporate executive dream may have eluded Adams, but he had found something far more valuable—creative and financial success on his own terms.
The irony isn’t lost that Adams achieved greater financial success satirizing corporate culture than he likely ever would have as an executive within it. His “failure” led him to a form of success he hadn’t originally imagined for himself.
Lessons from the Dilbert Journey
The story of Dilbert’s creation offers several valuable insights about creativity, perseverance, and finding success through unexpected paths:
1. Embrace Failure as Redirection
Adams’ inability to climb the corporate ladder wasn’t just a setback—it was redirection toward what would ultimately become his true calling. Sometimes our “failures” are simply nudging us toward paths better suited to our talents.
2. Draw from Personal Experience
Dilbert succeeded because it came from authentic experience. Adams wasn’t creating content about an imagined world—he was documenting and satirizing a world he knew intimately. This authenticity resonated with readers who recognized their own experiences in his work.
3. Persist Through Rejection
Before Dilbert was syndicated, Adams faced numerous rejections. It was an encouraging letter from a single fan that motivated him to continue. Success often comes after a series of setbacks that would have stopped less persistent individuals.
4. Start Small and Build
Adams didn’t quit his day job immediately. He worked on Dilbert in the early mornings and evenings while maintaining his corporate position. This gradual approach allowed him to develop his craft and build a following before taking the leap to full-time cartooning.
As Adams would later write in his book “How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big,” success often comes not from setting specific goals but from creating systems that increase your chances of finding opportunities. His early-morning cartooning routine was just such a system.
From Corporate Failure to Accidental Icon
The story of Dilbert is, in many ways, a perfect example of how failure can be the unexpected catalyst for success. Had Scott Adams thrived in the corporate world, had he been promoted up the ranks to executive status, Dilbert might never have existed. It was his frustration with corporate life—the meetings, the jargon, the incompetent bosses—that provided both the motivation and the material for what would become his life’s work.
Today, we can appreciate the irony that one of the most successful satirical takes on corporate America came from someone who, by conventional corporate standards, was a failure. Yet this “failure” led to a creative triumph that has brought humor and catharsis to millions of office workers around the world.
As Adams himself put it: “Most success springs from an obstacle or failure. I became a cartoonist largely because I failed in my goal of becoming a successful executive.” It’s a reminder that our paths to success rarely follow the routes we initially imagine—and that’s often for the best.
Join the Conversation
Have you ever had a “failure” that redirected you toward unexpected success? How has Dilbert’s view of office life resonated with your own experiences? Share your thoughts in the comments below!