Not only a failure but a stupid one.
By now I’d had a lifetime of failures. So I decided to see if there were others who might have failed time after time and eventually succeeded. I did. There were. And after a day at the library researching my book, I took a break and casually did an internet search and found my book had been written. Several times.
BOOK PREMISE:
There are many people thorough out history that have successfully contributed ideas, products and companies that we know and recognize today and yet, their lives ended in foreclosure, bankruptcy and financial ruin.
For lack of better financial planning, extravagant spending or simply the luck of the draw, being smart, gifted, intelligent or at the right place at the right time, there are no guarantees to success.
Perhaps it is what drove these unique individuals to strive for more in the first place that in the end, cost them everything.
We can take some comfort in knowing that for all of lives twists and turns, ups and downs, we are not alone.
It has happened to better souls than us.
INTRODUCTION:
After a modest life of success I found myself facing failure. I didn’t know why. Maybe because the world had changed, or opportunities were drying up, I was getting old. Maybe because I was losing my hair. Regardless, the dogs were nipping at the door and I felt sorry for myself. How could I be in this position?
I had been a success. I’d founded a fairly successful advertising agency in Minneapolis and sold it to a far larger one. Prior to that I’d worked in agencies in London, Istanbul and Tokyo. I had successfully talked my way around the world living off of my wits. I had five patents to my name, while not worth much, they were fun to talk about. My family and I lived in one of the city’s premier homes. And I was mr. little guy, the Lake Harriet Elf.
Trust me, I was no Donald Trump, Bill Gates or even XXX, the guy who started XXX (and more on him later). I was your run of the mill, work hard, play hard, strive hard guy who thought the life line chart started in the lower left-hand corner and through your life and worked its way to the upper right hand corner.
But no, that line can zigzag like a share of Enron stock. Like Frank says, “You can be riding high in April and shot down in May.”
I’ve always been interested in biographies. I’ve always looked for the secret to how others got ahead, always looked for the clue to their success. Then hopefully I could replicate it. I figured biographies would be a good place to find the answer. How did a skinny black kid from Queens end up Sammy Davis Jr. How did the ruler of a backwoods country end being called Peter the Great. How did JFK become the 35th president of the United States (besides his dad’s mafia connections).
One thing that I found curious in reading about people who had achieved success in their lives was just how many ended up in financial ruin.
Now if misery love company than I know there is nothing more miserable than financial failure. Well, that and hair loss.
I started reading more biographies of successful men and women but this time with an added filter; those who did well but ended up less so.
I realized that I was not alone. It wasn’t just dirtballs and swindlers who ended up in foreclosure, bankruptcy or with hair loss but good and noble people who perhaps just bit off a bit more than they could chew. For whatever reason, there is a large and noble league of successful failures.
Instead of mourning our loss, let us celebrate our attempt at the golden ring, hold our heads high and proclaim to the world:
Veni, vidi, vici et sucumbi
I came, I saw, I conquered, I faltered
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
CHAPTER ONE
POLITICIANS, MONARCHS AND HEADS OF STATE
Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865) 16th President of the USA
Marjorie Mezvinsky (1942 ) Former member
U.S. House of Representatives
King Edward II (1284-1327) English king
Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809) Third President of the USA
Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) 18th President of the USA
J. Fife Symington (1945) Governor of Arizona
John Connally 1917-1993) Texas governor
CHAPTER TWO
CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY
Henry John Heinz (1844-1919) The King of Condiments
Milton Snavely Hershey (1857-1945) Founder of
Hershey’s chocolate
William Fox (1879-1952) Co-founder of
20th Century Fox Film Corporation
William G. Stern (1936) British property mogul
CHAPTER THREE
THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT
Fatty Arbuckle (1887-1933) Silent screen star
Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-1891) American showman
Mickey Rooney (1920) Movie star
Debbie Reynolds (1932) Movie star
Jerry Lee Lewis (1935) Rock n’ Roll star
Burt Reynolds (1936) Movie actor
Sherman Hemsley (1938)TV actor
Wayne Newton (1942) Las Vegas showman
Kim Basinger (1953) Actress
Walt Disney (1901-1966 Animation & theme park pioneer,
Mary Nolan (1905-1948) Actress
Stephin Fetchit ( Lincoln Perry) (1902-1985)
Actor Veronica Lake (1922-1973) Actress
Eddie Fisher (1928) Singer, actor
Harry Saltzman (1915-1994) Producer of James Bond movies
Susan Powter (1957) Exercise/fitness expert; talk-show host
Anna Nicole Smith (1967-2007) Model-actress
Gary Coleman (1968) TV star
Corey Haim (1971) Actor
Cathy Lee Crosby (1944) Actress
Francis Ford Coppola (1939) Oscar-winning film
writer-director-producer
Elizabeth Gracen (1961) Actress; model; Miss America 1982
Larry King (1933) Talk-show host
Keith Famie (1960) Reality TV show contestant
Burt Prelutsky (0000) American television writer; screenwriter
Lorraine Bracco (1954) Oscar-nominated actress
Clay Jordan (1955) Reality TV show contestant
Gary Kurtz (1940) Oscar-nominated film producer
Don Johnson (1949)Actor, producer
Lorenzo Lamas (1958) Actor
Dino De Laurentis (1919) Oscar-winning film producer
CHAPTER FOUR
SINGERS COMPOSERS
Dorothy Dandridge (1922-1965) Oscar-nominated
black actress-singer
Vic Damone (1928) Singer
Lionel Bart (1930-1999) British composer- lyricist-playwright
Ray Sawyer (1937 Rock star
Isaac Hayes (1942) Songwriter-composer-musician-singer
Johnny Paycheck (1938-2003) Country music star
Tom Petty (1950) Rock star
Cyndi Lauper (1953) Rock star
Meat Loaf (Marvin Lee Aday) (1947) Rock star
George Clinton (0000) Rock star
Mick Fleetwood (1947) Rock star
Andy Gibb (1958-1988) Rock star
Mindy McCready (1975) Country music star
Natalie Cole (1950) Singer
Toni Braxton (1967) Rock star
La Toya Jackson (1956) Rock star
Anita Bryant (1940) Singer; American author;
1958 Miss America 2nd runner-up
Tammy Wynette (1942-1998) Country music star
Janice-Marie Johnson - rock star/disco diva
Willie Nelson (1933) Country music star
Merle Haggard (1937) Country music star
Chaka Kahn (1953) Rock star
Kacey Jones - country music star; musical humorist
Lorrie Morgan (1959) Country music star
Ashley MacIsaac (1975) Musician-fiddler
Debelah Morgan (1977) R&B singer, songwriter
Michael Jackson (1958) Rock star
CHAPTER FIVE
AUTHORS, COMPOSERS AND POETS OF MERIT
Mark Twain, (Samuel L. Clemens) (1835-1910) American author
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Poet and author
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Composer
L. Frank Baum (1856-1919) “Wizard of Oz” author
Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) Bisexual author and poet
CHAPTER SIX
ATHLETES & MVPS
Johnny Unitas (1933) Legendary Hall of Fame
football quarterback
Eddy “the Eagle” Edwards (1933) Great Britain’s first
Olympic ski jumper
Mike Tyson (1966) Boxer
Dorothy Hamill (1956) Olympic gold-medal ice-skater
Bowie Kuhn (1926-2007) Former U.S. baseball commissioner
CHAPTER SEVEN
INVENTORS, SCIENTISTS AND CRACK POTS
Henry Ford (1863-1947) Automobile manufacturer
Lee de Forest (1873-1961) American inventor
Charles Goodyear (1800-1860) American inventor
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE FINE AND NOT SO FINE ARTS
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669)
Dutch painter
Mathew Brady (1823-1896) Civil War photographer
James Abbot McNeil Whistler (1834-1903) Artist
CHAPTER NINE
MISCELLANEOUS MEMBERS
Immanuel Nobel (1801-1872) Father of
manufacturer-philanthropist Alfred Nobel
Heidi Fleiss (1965) Madam, clothing line founder
Juan Rodriguez (0000) Mega Millions lotto winner
Joanne Lopes and Jorge Lopes Lotto jackpot winners
Stan Lee (1922) Comic book industry pioneer
Bob Guccione (1930) Publisher and founder
of Penthouse magazine
Successful Failures
SECOND QUARTER 2007