How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

Shepherd Mead

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying: The Dastard's Guide to Fame and Fortune is a humorous 1952 book by Shepherd Mead. It inspired a successful 1961 musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, which was made into a movie in 1967. The book is a satire of an instructional manual, very similar in form and subject matter to Stephen Potter's Gamesmanship. How to Succeed satirizes office life in the United States in the guise of a self-help book. Its subtitle is "The Dastard's Guide to Fame and Fortune". How to Succeed was inspired by Mead's corporate experiences at the Benton & Bowles advertising agency, which he joined in 1936 as a mail-room clerk, eventually working his way up to a vice-presidency. During his journey up the corporate ladder, Mead wrote the book in his spare time—before work and on weekends. The book was a best-seller.

Business

1952

Simon and Schuster

English