Good Advice from Bad People: Selected Wisdom from Murderers, Stock Swindlers, and Lance Armstrong

by Zac Bissonnette

The world is full of people telling you how to live your life. Sometimes the advice-givers fall ever-so-slightly short themselves.
Bestselling author Zac Bissonnette has gathered more than seventy-five jaw-dropping gems, including risk-management advice from the man who triggered the world’s largest hedge fund collapse and tips from gay-prostitute-patronizing pastor Ted Haggard on how to build a marriage that lasts a lifetime. The result will keep you smiling while you glean all the wisdom you need to build the life you want . . . if only you can follow it better than the people who gave it.
• “When you know what you are talking about, others will follow you, because it’s safe to follow you.” —Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld , 2006 • “I think the most important thing is restore a sense of idealism and end the cynicism.” —future Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich , 2002 • “The day you take complete responsibility for yourself, the day you stop making any excuse, that’s the day you start to the top.” — O.J. Simpson , 1975

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, Ebooks, Business

208 pages, Paperback

First published March 25, 2014

About the author

New York Times bestselling author Zac Bissonnette's most recent book is 2015’s The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute. He is an equity analyst at a hedge fund, and lives in New York City with his partner and a tuxedo cat named Perry Como.

Reviews

[Petra X · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do as I say, not as I do. A book of advice from hypocrites who laughed behind their hands whilst pulling in the money and sometimes the adulation too. Sport and televangelism are particularly easy areas for the author to mine. All of the people quoted are American and contemporary. The book has a lot of white space so I think the author might have branched out a bit and added in few world figures. I'm thinking Meghan and Harry, but the book was written long before those two whined they wanted to live private lives, get away from the intrusive media and .... go on Oprah, do podcasts, make Netflix series and always, always take along a photographer for every event!

The book makes me think of a nice little quote, "You weren't entirely useless; you served as a bad example." And another one, "There are three things in the world that deserve no mercy, hypocrisy, fraud, and tyranny." And the book shows none!

Classic shaming book. Jon Ronson could have used these stories in his book in Shame.

[Wanda Pedersen · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was the title that attracted my attention—the potential was obvious. As it turns out, the book was less than I expected. There is a certain amount of humour in a book where Donald Trump gives advice on staying humble, Tiger Woods describes how to be a role model, and O.J. Simpson recommends taking responsibility for your actions. But the humour stayed at the gentle irony stage, where I had expected the author to take a bit more advantage of the incongruousness of the set-up. He limits himself to giving a quote from the bad person and then pointing out how far that individual has deviated from said advice. Once I determined that there was not going to be an emphasis on the ridiculous, I anticipated getting a bit more useful advice for identifying and avoiding the narcissists, sociopaths, and psychopaths of the world. This information was added, apparently as an afterthought, very briefly in the last two pages of the book. Summary: they are mostly men, they preach obvious things that we already know, people celebrate them without knowing very much about them and these folks milk their status for everything they can. Basically, narcissists and psychopaths dazzle us with charisma while taking advantage of our bedazzlement. Easy to say, hard to recognize when you are under the spell of the perpetrator in question. These are realizations that come with hindsight.

At least the book does not take too much time to read—the text is not dense, with many white spaces on the page and frequent portraits of the bad people in question. The format was to provide a quote and sometimes a photo on one or two pages, following by a page to a page and half of comments by the author. I was easily able to read the book while waiting in medical offices for blood tests, scans, etc. As it was easily interruptible, it was the perfect book to take as a time-passer during those waiting periods.

Neither very humourous nor very wise, this is a “self help” book that I would advise you to leave on the shelf. If you feel you must read it, borrow it from a library, as I did, rather than spending your own hard earned money on it.

[Natasha M. Nurse, Esq. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Note to self: Anyone can share good advice, no matter the amount of mistakes or wrongful actions taken in their life.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this at a special discount price of free, from the author, who is as fine an American as I know of anywhere. I did research his background prior to making that statement and he does appear to be an American, in fact he attended U-Mass Amherst, which is where my eldest niece just graduated from this past spring. Which honestly puts him in some shady company, but I will say that he appears to be a much finer writer, wittier and currently more successful than she is. But she's young, I'm "sure" she'll do fine! By the way Zac, she played clarinet in the band, so if you're a clarinet player by any chance, you have that in common too, for better or worse.

This book isn't quite what I thought it would be, based upon the title. Oh, but Larry you say (if you were Zac, you would probably say it just like that with a tone of exasperation in your voice) it's a pretty straightforward title, and it IS pretty much chock full-o-bits of oddly inappropriate "advice" from various losers. I dunno, I thought some of the individual things would be a bit more longer and detailed.

Still, this is one damn entertaining book, I would suggest not doing as I did and waiting for Zac to offer you a copy. No friends, I would say to you that you should get off your lazy ass and go buy your own. Zac doesn't write for charity, he's a professional, and needs the money. Mine came with a nicely handwritten note from Zac, which will remain in the book when it sits on shelf of books I've read and think I'll keep for reference. That shelf is in the crapper by the way. Don't mock, you read there too.

Oh wait! I remember now - my sole criticism: Not all of the people written about are necessarily "bad" people. Ok, so Lance Armstrong, Rush Limbaugh, Donald Trump - guys like that - yes, bad people. Some others though were just unfortunate squibs with a run of bad luck, stupid folk, or maybe thought more of themselves at some point in life than they should have.

Now, I've raved (generally) about the book, and you say (or Zac says) "but Larry, there's only 4 stars there.

1) It's my common beef with Goodreads. Give us 10 stars to use. Zac woulda gotten another .5, or if you will - 9 stars.
B) It was too short. What's with that Zac? Lack of stupidity to cite? I doubt that. Saving some for the sequel? Cruel.
1.a.) It's a tiny book. Not a full-size tome. On the one hand, easy to fold back and read with one hand. On the other hand, just about every 22 seconds I had to turn the damn page. My cat was annoyed that my hand kept finding something to do other than pet him.
C) There is no (C). I like my lists in threes.

Zac, you've done a fine job with this book. I laughed, I cried,I shook my head in dismay, I shook my fist in anger, I made microwave popcorn so that real, authentic popcorn slathered with melted butter (incidentally, how my cat prefers it) wouldn't stain the pages from my greasy fingers. Though after a few months in the crapper, I hesitate to say that the pages will remain quite as pristine.

[Nathan Schmidt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads, and am grateful for the opportunity.

When I first read the description for this book, I anticipated quotes from infamous people such as Hitler, Genghis Khan, and Billy the Kid. I was sorely disappointed when I learned that the book's collection of villains is much more limited. Even the mention of modern dictators such as Idi Amin and Dzhokar Dudayev would have made the selection more diverse. Instead, the scope only accounts for American criminals, and mostly rather mundane ones at that. He largely focuses on small scandals within America, and sometimes even stretches things a little too far. Many of the people mentioned certainly had bad records, but overall the book doesn't seem to live up to its name.

The book follows a two-page format in which the first page has the quote, and the second page has a summary of the person quoted. This format works rather well, but runs into trouble when the summaries go past the second page, pushing back the arrangement. This can make the reading a little confusing, as it isn't always clear who the quote goes with.

The quotes, and the stories of the infamous people who said them, are quite interesting. However, I am disappointed that Bissonnette did not go farther to consider truly infamous people, and stayed within such a narrow limit.

[Leonard · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was quick reading, fortunately, but it does confirm at least one fact; that people who make foolish mistakes can also do or say some good things at times. The reverse is also true; that an intelligent, wise, and conscientious person can also make a horrible mistake and do something evil or stupid. In fact all people are capable of good and evil, and most, perhaps all, have committed good and evil acts. No one is perfect and no one is completely evil. Of course those points could have been made in a more efficient and effective manner in a book with a somewhat different focus.

Having said that I also am still an admirer of Lance Armstrong's athletic accomplishments. I think his winning 7 Tour de France races is only slightly diminished by his use of illegal preformance enhancing substances. Highly competitive races like theses are won by narrow margins, so the use of illegal substances probably only slightly improved his chances of winning. The rest was hard work. More distressing than his use of drugs was the abusive way he treated others.

However this book seems to have been written more to make fun of people who cheated or failed in some way, than to promote some wise and worthwhile comment or ideal, and in that sense is probably as much a failure as the people it mocks.

[Yodamom · Rating 2 out of 5]

I saw this title and had to read it. What a fantastic title and idea for a book. Well for me the title was the best part. What was inside was not at all what I had expected. There was a quote from the "bad person" on one page then a brief what they did wrong on the next page. It read very dry and uninteresting for me. I really thought this would be funny, a slapstick look at the major screw-ups and their foot in the mouth comments.
In the end I did not like it.

[Trisha McKee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a deliciously tantalizing collection of scandalous people giving great advice. And the one thing we as a society love is scandal. Add hypocrisy to that and readers are hooked. This book provides the best of those worlds and does so in a succinct, engrossing manner. The quote is followed by a short biography of the quoter, highlighting why the words of wisdom contradicts his/her way of life. Interesting, funny, accurate. Love this book and would recommend it.

[MrsJoseph *grouchy* · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://bookslifewine.com/r-good-advic...

3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 stars.

[Kirsti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short yet compelling. To be featured in this book, it's not enough to be a bad person. If you go bankrupt because of poor management, you must also be the author of get-rich-quick advice books. If you harass or assault a flight attendant, you must also be a religious leader who has written or spoken extensively on the subjects of kindness and humility. And I'm sure you can imagine what the athletes who lectured others about being role models got up to.

[Skjam! · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received this book from a Goodreads giveaway on the premise that I would review it.

People love to give advice. Maxims, moral pronouncements, proverbs and detailed instructions on how other people should live their lives drop from people’s lips like pearls and diamonds (or toads and snakes, if we don’t like the advice.) Some folks even make a living out of it!

But often what advisers do is not what they say to do. This is a collection of advice snippets from famous people that for the most part didn’t follow their own sayings. Some are presumably good people who cracked under pressure, others are hypocrites who have a higher standards for others than themselves, and not a few are just plain con artists who used pious phrases while not meaning a word of it.

The people cited in this short volume are mostly contemporary, with a few dips back as far as the Vietnam era. They’re overwhelmingly male, something the author talks about a bit, but from across the political spectrum. The quotations are selected to either be the opposite of what they did in real life, or to have an ironic twist of phrase.

Most of the names will be familiar to anyone who’s paid attention in the last twenty years (Bernie Madoff, for example), but others may surprise you, or even be someone you once respected. The closing has a list of signs that a person might soon be joining the ranks of exposed hypocrites.

There are a number of black and white photographs, and a small bibliography of works the author has mined the quotes from.

As a humor book, it would make a good gift for people who enjoy self-help books and people who favor schadenfreude.

“But where can wisdom be found?
Where does understanding dwell?
No mortal comprehends its worth;
it cannot be found in the land of the living.”–Job 28:12-13

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won a copy of this book from the Goodreads Firstreads Giveaway program. As billed, it's a collection of quotations from famous people who were unwilling or unable to follow their own advice. The selection is limited to modern Americans. The book is broken up into six sections, with a quote on one page followed by a brief recap of how the individual did not live up to their words. I didn't really feel that some of the people selected were "bad" as in absolutely evil, but rather misguided or perhaps weak-willed or simply not too bright. Some of the selections were painfully obvious such as Simpson, Sandusky, and any of the large group of televangelists who have been exposed as evil crooks and charlatans (yet who somehow get people to keep sending them money all of the time), as well as some of the politicians and self-help or financial-adviser people. There's little humor here despite the cute cover and the potential for amusement inherent in the concept. I thought the commentary wandered into the area of poor taste a time or two, as well as the book's brief "Conclusion" section. Still, it was an interesting read and serves as a cautionary illustration of why leaders and celebrities must always be taken with several grains of salt.

[Doug Kirkland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads. This book was not what I had expected, which, for me, actually worked in its favor. I had anticipated some sort of great advice, from evil people, that everyone should strive to follow. I had expected this to be more of a self-help book (which I tend to hate), and was surprised to find that it was considered “humor”. Don’t get me wrong, the vast majority of the advice is actually pretty good, but some of it is kind of common sense (which the author points out in the conclusion), and the people are not necessarily evil, just bad, mostly at being people. The book is set up with the advice on one page, sometimes with a picture of the person that said it, and then a one or two page hypocritical anecdote about how the person that gave this advice did the exact opposite. A few of these anecdotes I found hilarious, but everyone one of them at least made me chuckle, making this a very quick and enjoyable read. All in all, while nothing exceptionally profound, I found this book to be a lot of fun and well worth the few hours it took to read.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mean... let's be honest... the people profiled in this book all achieved a pretty high level of "success". They were all busted, but then for those that just want that 15 minutes of fame (or for Lance Armstrong seven Tours and one less ball - too much??) they'll do juuuuust about everything.

Kudos to Bissonnette on this one, the concept is brilliant and from a sheer psychology reason intriguing. Mostly bc the advice is actually fairly sound - even if you don't want to grow up to be Bernie Madoff, but lezbeonus - there's a lotta people that DO want to be like him - sans the getting caught part.

And 50 lashes for me as well, I apologize Zac, you sent this book to me an eternity ago with a nice note inside of it and I've been all over the place and moving 3,000 miles west to start a new life... based off all this advice of course....

[Raymond Spitzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I don't believe human beings who make mistakes should be labeled "bad people," I kept turning the pages to read the next example of hypocrisy. We all fall short of perfection, but we have the opportunity to repent and improve ourselves.

Zac Bissonnette did a good job selecting quotes, putting them in context, and showing how the advice givers fell short of living up to their words. The biographical summaries are accurate, concise, and witty.

I collect quotations, and I have noticed a tendency to reject the quotation, no matter how good, if I don't respect the source. This book extolls the virtue of the advice at the expense of the person who said it. I enjoyed the reading experience...and the caution we need to exercise when choosing self-help writers.

[Troy Dowling · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a shame to be limited by a mere five stars while attempting to rate this brilliant book from an accomplished, refreshing author. Unlike a rambling work from William F. Buckley, Jr. that offers numerous pages to solidify one point, each paragraph is succinct and couples entertainment with education. This straightforward piece of literary excellence is an ideal purchase for busy professionals.

[Kurt Rocourt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting to read this book over a weekend and laugh until it hurt. The problem was that the book lacks the humor that would make this book memorable. I read the book but don't remember most of what I read. I wanted to laugh along with the author at what I was reading. The last two pages are the best parts of the book. And I agree with the last paragraph of the book.

Thanks to Goodreads First Reads for the free copy of this book.

[Yvonne · Rating 3 out of 5]

First I won this in the Goodreads Book Giveaway.

Very entertaining and I would agree with the vast majority of people that were chosen they were bad people. There are a few that I think just made poor choices and were basic hypocrites. I also find that most hypocrites can be found in political and religious arena and that would be the last place I would seek advice. I will stick with the advice my grandparents and parents have given me.

[Ralph Calhoun · Rating 2 out of 5]

Since i won this book I feel I have to review it. I read Good Advice very quickly, it is an easy read, but I did not find much humor in it. I agree with another reviewer who expected to see sage advice from Hitler, Stalin, etc. I expected more laughs, but actually found the stories more sad than anything else.

[TL Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads. I found this book very interesting. The author was very informative on the many people he wrote about. I enjoyed reading about past and present people who thought they were smarter than they really were. You may lay this book down from time to time, but you soon find yourself wanting to read more. Well written Zac Bissonnette.

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read and loved Bissonnette's financial guides, not only because of the very sound advice, but because of his sardonic humor. It is, therefore, perfect that he would segue into a book of humor.

Bissonnette's bias toward the financial is still clear in this book as some of the funniest pieces of advice are from failed financiers. (Bernie Madoff: Invest in a low-cost market index mutual fund. Thanks, B.) But he also touches on people like Jim Jones (shudder) and John "Men Are From Mars Women Are From Venus" Gray (fun fact: his PhD was from a diploma factory). And, as promised, Lance Armstrong.

Like Bissonnette's other books (and most good humor) this gets to the point quickly, and his point is that most of the advice is common sense stuff that normal, well-adjusted people who can do basic math shouldn't need to be told. In other words...save your money and stay away from self-help books.

Bonus: his prediction that Tim Tebow will make it into his next edition. Naturally.

[Kiet Huynh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bullshit is everywhere.
Mở đầu sách nói thẳng đây là quyển sách làm bạn không bao giờ đọc self-help nữa. Lý do? Vì nó sẽ làm bạn mất niềm và bắt đầu nghi ngờ những thứ họ (millionaires, journalists, advisors,...) phát biểu.
Trong số những bullshiter, có các tác giả của tác phẩm mình biết như:
- Đàn Ông Đến Từ Sao Hoả - Đàn Bà Đến Từ Sao Kim (bestseller): li dị vợ, được vợ cũ miêu tả mỗi khi nói chuyện với chồng như "cuộc tấn công từ sao Hỏa"
- How We Decide (NYT bestseller): bóp méo sự thật nói về cách não hoạt động, giả thí nghiệm khoa học.
- Lance Amstrong (cyclist): quá nổi rồi, dùng doping ở các chặng vô địch
- Tiger Woods (golf player): bê bối li dị, làm trái ngược với những phát biểu truyền cảm hứng lúc còn trẻ
Và hằng hà sa số những kẻ làm giàu nhờ bán sách làm giàu, tội phạm cổ cồn trắng mang mặt nạ giả nhân nghĩa. Những câu quote mang nội dung tương tự như cái những kẻ ấy khuyên lảng vãng khắp trên Internet.
Kể ra sách rác cũng nhiều nhỉ.

[Huy Nguyen · Rating 3 out of 5]

#4 book of 2021: Những bậc thầy ngụy tạo - Zac Bissonnette

"Có vẻ cuộc sống khắc nghiệt khiến con người cần những hình mẫu lý tưởng để hướng theo, những lời chỉ dạy để hoàn thiện bản thân. Thế giới đầy những người sẵn sàng chỉ dẫn bạn phải sống như thế nào, những cuốc sách self-help liên tục nằm trong top bán chạy nhất mọi thời đại" cho đến khi những vụ bê bối tài chính, chính trị, thể thao,.. bị phanh phui. Do đó, chúng ta cần biết rằng vẻ bề ngoài "lấp lánh" hay những lời nói hoa mỹ không làm nên giá trị con người
Ngoài ra thì cuốn sách là tập hợp của nhiều vụ scandal khác nhau, không đi quá sâu vào phân tích mà mang yếu tố giới thiệu nhiều hơn, không thể gọi là xuất sắc nhưng cũng cho ta một góc nhìn khác về sách "self-help"
#ZAC #BISSONNETTE #Scandal

[TraGiang Nguyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Một hồi chuông cảnh báo nhỏ về những cuốn sách self-help, cho lời khuyên. Dành cho những ai dễ bị cuốn hút bởi những bìa sách và câu chữ lấp lánh, có thể dừng lại một chút để tìm hiểu về tác giả, và mục đích của họ khi viết cuốn sách đó để quyết định xem có đáng tin hay không.
Mình không có ý nói rằng nếu giả sống tệ thì lời khuyên của họ không có giá trị. Hơn ai hết, chính người đọc mới là người tiếp nhận các thông tin, diễn giải và áp dụng chúng. Việc mù quáng nghe theo một lời khuyên mà không cân nhắc đến điều kiện của bản thân mình sẽ có nhiều khả năng dẫn đến những mất mát đáng tiếc, ít nhất là thời gian và công sức.

[Nhat Nguyen · Rating 1 out of 5]

if possible i wanna give it 1.5 star. Good point from the book is challenge our naieve belief in self help books or speakers without critical mind. But I'm quite sick of the way the author is making money by digging into personal life of those people, to prove they're all fake images from what they stated, then... so what? Very little values I get from it. But you can read for fun or in leisure time.

[Becca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like this kind of book: basically super short bits of easily digestible information.

The writing is good, i thought it would have more serial killers tho.

I think the book should have been titled: hypocrites of history, a lot of the "advice" is common sense or really generic, not a big problem actually.

Read it in one day. 6.5/10 - would not read again, because duh.

[Davy Kent · Rating 1 out of 5]

Light on substance. If there was a point or overarching message to this book, the author made no attempt to share it. As is, the book reads like a sarcastic, self-important rant at the local bar. I'm all for exposing charlatans and hypocrites, but Good Advice from Bad People did not meet that mark.

[Kepler Ridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started of pretty interesting, but ...

By the end it just seemed more and more preachy, repetitive and an unsubstantiated parting shot? I'm not a fanboy of Tim Tebow, but seemed like a strange ending.

[Ling · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had been attracted by the title of this book, but it was worse than I expected.

So, 2 stars for this.

[J. · Rating 1 out of 5]

So much potential, but boring as all get out and reads like a choppy, incomplete textbook.