This is the Safari online edition of the printed book.

Really want to know how to fail? Consistently? Massively? Irrevocably?

Steve McDermott’s spent years studying the world’s greatest failures: those extraordinary individuals who’ve spectacularly underachieved in every walk of life. They all use the exact same skills and strategies--and you can learn them, too. (Maybe you know some already!) In this quick, incredibly practical guide to failure, McDermott brings together dozens of state-of-the-art techniques guaranteed to help you crash, burn, and disappoint everyone in your life. In just minutes, discover how to fail at...

• Leadership                 • Relationships              • Personal growth          • Achieving happiness

• Teamwork                  • Planning                     • Goal-setting                • Careers

• Financial security        • First impressions        • And so much more!

DANGER: Do NOT attempt to reverse these techniques. If performed in the opposite fashion, they may cause spectacular success. The publisher and author will not be held responsible for wealth, happiness, or career achievements resulting from the use of these skills and strategies in reverse.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 94 Ratings

Funny concept, but not really anything new - 2008-11-03
Reviewer Rating:
I got this book because the title made me smile, and I was very much intrigued to see what it was about. This book is a self help book, but rather than giving you suggestions for making your life better, it does the complete opposite: The book warns you about things that you should best avoid if you are to succeed in becoming a complete and utter failure, as the title suggests. However, after a while, this negative advice starts to get old like an overused joke.

Although this is a fresh concept for a self-help book, I felt like the information presented was nothing really new or fresh. However, I do like how the book is broken up into short chapters, which makes it easy to read. So if you are looking for a lighthearted, reasonably funny self-help book, then this might be a good option, but don't expect anything too 'deep and insightful.'

Fresh Twist on Self-Help Advice, Very Effective, Hysterical! - 2008-09-16
Reviewer Rating:
This book is hilarious! Author Steve McDermott has taken self-help advice, some of it so familiar to us that we don't even `hear it' anymore and twisted it into the opposite. Just reading the one-sentence summary advice in its opposite form is laugh out loud funny, such as "Don't adjust" and "Don't take personal responsibility for your life and results". It is amazing how ludicrous some of the advice on how to fail is, and it hits home when I recognized some of my own actions were right there in the `how to fail' advice such as "Get very impatient in the early stages of growth. You don't want to wait. You want it now, now, or even sooner than that."

Each piece of advice is laid out as a step. With each step is a quote from a famous person. There are 2-4 pages of writing to expand on the concept. There is also a box with specific actions to take to achieve the step.

I'm a woman and really enjoyed this book but I can imagine that men would love this book even more. Anyone who has heard the self-help advice before, the advice about how to be successful, how to do well at your career and so on, may not want to hear the same old advice again, in the same old presentation. For some reason twisting the advice into its opposite, and having the advice seem so crazy because it so obviously is guiding us on what exactly to do in order to fail, we `get' the true message that if we want success and happiness, we must do the opposite. The sense of humor is appealing and makes this more readable than some of the many books of advice on how to find success that are already on the market.

Teenagers who may not have read one or a few self-help books yet would also enjoy this book due to the humorous presentation (not to mention that they'd learn a lot from it). Teenage boys really are a perfect audience for this book as so many would be closed-minded to being told what to do especially if it differs from what they think is right because they already know it all, don't you know? I think it would be a good gift for a teenager, a high school graduation gift, or a good gift for a college student. Additionally psychologists and counselors of any kind may find this book hilarious and a must-read for a good laugh.

The book does not have to be read from front to back. You can flip through the book to find a step to read, put it down and return to it later. Between that type of reading and the sense of humor I can see that this would be a good book to keep on a coffee table at home for people to stumble upon and laugh over, as it is a good conversation starter. It is also good to keep at your office. You or your co-workers might like to read one of the steps to get a bit of comedic relief during the workday.

Huh? - 2009-01-08
Reviewer Rating:
Based on the title and the description (and the book cover), I thought this was going to be a comedic book, but it's really a motivational book that takes normal motivational stuff and flips it around to how to be a failure instead of how to be a success, though with the intention of making you a success. Kind of weird, and not my thing. Seems totally mismarketed.

Decent unpretentious advice, annoying backwards delivery. Three-and-a-half stars. - 2008-11-16
Reviewer Rating:
So. This is a career-oriented self-help book. As these things go, the advice is generally pretty good. There are some genuinely interesting bits and there was nothing that I found to be wrong or toxic. McDermott has taken a lot of ideas out from the models of more ambitious self-help writers and put them into one place-- but I actually rather liked that. He provides the tips without the blah blah blah.

Unfortunately, the set-up of the book was not for me. The conceit is that he's telling you how to fail, and if you want to succeed, then you should do the opposite. I honestly got bored with this after the first few tips and tired of reading through the backwards prose. There are probably people out there who would really like this approach and find it fresh and funny, but I wasn't one of them. I'm thinking that this would be a decent format for a younger person in their first job-- someone who hasn't read a billion self-help books already.

Even if it didn't turn my life around, I'm going to add it to my work library. Like I said, I can see it being quite useful for someone, even if it wasn't the thing for me.

Unspeakably dull and predictable - 2008-09-18
Reviewer Rating:
This book proves that not all English comics are funny. In fact, some are downright dull and predictable. This book works on one singular conceit, namely, that it is really saying the opposite of the "advice" it purports to provide readers. Material like this is not easy, because it needs to either surprise the reader with its cleverness or inform her in ways she might not expect ... that is to say to be either original or so delightful in its wording as to amuse. It is, alas, none of these things. Instead it is utter tripe. It fails on all measures and must be avoided.

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