by Ben Stein
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Product Description
How Successful People Win is a serious self-help book using as its central metaphor the life of the cowboy and his behavior as he leaves his bunkhouse. Based upon a lifetime of observation of the successful and how they got that way, Ben Stein suggests that you imitate the determination, inner mobility, activity, flexibility—and the refusal to indulge in self-pity—of the cowboy in order to get what you want out of life. The idea is that if you never indulge in making excuses, refuse to let other people’s hangups get in your way, and move deliberately toward clearly thought-out goals, you will get where you want to go. Just as the cowboy refuses to allow himself to get sidetracked by trivia, so can you refuse to allow life’s inevitable challenges and distractions mar your own success and happiness. The choice is yours.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Never makes the connection, 2008-11-29
Regretably, this book was a huge disappointment. The analogy with the cowboy and the bunkhouse never rings true and actually gets in the way. Mr. Stein only teases you with a few personal experiences and insights, before falling back on unattributed anecdotes. Otherwise, it reads as the typical self-help book, probably ghost written. I consider it a waste of time.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Good Advice, 2007-08-01
Ben Stein's concept of Bunkhouse logic is pretty good stuff, and let me tell you it would do a lot of people in today's society a lot of good to hear about it. His basic message is that many of us would be a lot happier and a lot more successful if we adopted the attitude and philosophy of the American cowboy. The cowboy doesn't sit around and rationalize why he can't get the drive done; he just does it. He doesn't drown himself and his success in a sea of pointless excuses manufactured as temporary pick-me-ups that only end up creating more and more failure.
Happiness is contingent upon feeling good about yourself which is usually contingent on achieving something. Contrary to what a shrink would tell you, the last thing you need if you're depressed is to "explore your feelings," wasting time trying to discover why you don't feel good about yourself. No, what you need is to act, to go out and achieve. Good feelings will follow in course.
Ignore the advice of others. Most people only want to see you fail, even your friends. It's called the contrast principle. The more successful you are the less successful they look. Your friends, deep down, want you to fail. Then they can sympathize and console, and this makes them feel good. Ignore the advice of others unless it is coming from someone you want to be just like. Pick some role models and mimic their successful behavior. Do NOT inadvertantly end up modeling the behavior of those around you unless you explicitly want to end up just like them.
The only flaw, as I see it, with Stein's arguments (aside from the fact that he's repetitive) is that he tells people to go and do what they want, but ignores the psychological fact that what many people think they want is not at all conducive to happiness. He seems, for instance, wholly unaware of the hedonic paradox: that odd fact of psychology that people who make pursuing their own pleasure their main goal in life rarely actually end up content or satistfied. They often end up deeply unfulfilled and depressed. This is a flaw in his argument, as getting what you think you want is not always a good thing. What is conducive to happiness is wanting to get things that lead to contentment and satisfaction, real achievements and intellectual pleasures, not some of the baser and sillier things that Stein sometimes here talks about. To paraphrase John Stuart Mill, "Happier is Socrates dissatisfied than a pig satisfied."
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
That rarest of rare beast ..., 2007-07-27
... an inspirational book that actually has something to say. Moving beyond the usual claptrap that passes for wisdom these days, Ben Stein actually appears to have given some thought to what he wanted to say. And while his use of the cowboy as an archetype is a bit strained at time, I found this book so helpful that I immediate sent a copy to my brother.
Recommended.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 One of the Best Books Ever!, 2007-06-21
I suppose that a lot of people have a favorite inspirational book, whether it is Canfield's "The Success Principles" or Byrne's "The Secret". Well, this is my favorite.
Ben Stein explains how he was a disillusioned Yale graduate working for the FTC in a dilapidated Washington, DC office building. Using the principles in this book, he later became an investing guru, author, and media star (appearing in the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and his own game show, "Win Ben Stein's Money".)
Ben Stein's paragon for success is the cowboy (thus the work "bunkhouse" in the title). Rugged, self-reliant, and unflappable, the cowboy embodies all of the qualities needed to succeed. For Stein, you must take a risk and work hard to get ahead in life, just like the hero of the American mythos, the cowboy. READ THIS BOOK -- YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
You can escape from the rat trap, 2007-05-17
Ben Stein is dead on once again. There are jobs and people out there that make us unhappy as individuals and there is no excuse not to remove them from your life.
One reviewer claims the book is common sense, but if this were true, why are so many people caught is jobs with terrible pay or terrible bosses.
The book outlines why and how to move forward in life. Even the individual with the most perfect life could read this book to gain insight and not be dissapointed.
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