How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

by Shepherd Mead, Claude (Illustrator)

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 contemporary 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.

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1962

About the author

Shepherd Mead was one of those men dogged by success. After graduating from Washington University he went to New York to practice being an intellectual and ended up as a junior executive and then a vice-president of Benton & Bowles. His biting attacks against society only gained him greater fame and success, and he finally resigned and fled to Europe with his wife and three children in 1957. He spent a year in Geneva and then went to England in 1958.

As an author, Mead published over fifteen books, including: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, The Big Ball of Wax, The Admen, The Four Window Girl, How to Succeed at Business Spying By Trying and How to Succeed in Tennis Without Really Trying.