How Successful People Win: Using Bunkhouse Logic to Get What You Want in Life

by Ben Stein

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1561709751
• ISBN13: 9781561709755
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: New Beginnings Press
• Length: 135 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

You can escape from the rat trap

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.

Saddle Up...Long Ride Ahead, But It's Worth It

Ben Stein has the smarts. Unlike most famous actors, he's gotten by on more than his, er, good looks. He worked hard for what he has. He knows practical economics better than many economics professors (his dad was one). He's been a teacher, journalist, and a lawyer. And he's spent his entire life actively observing successful people. So when he speaks (or writes), I'm willing to listen. And Stein speaks the truth...like it or not. Others have touched upon most aspects of this short book, which is of course about being a success. "Success" here is defined as "getting what you want in life." The book is broken into five parts, with the meatiest being Part IV ("Preparing for the Game") and Part V ("The Rules of the Game"). The binding theme is "bunkhouse logic": an emphasis on activity, mobility, and performance--not excuses. This is something cowboys have known for a long time. You gotta work HARD for success. And then you gotta get up early the next morning and do it again. If I'm going to allow someone into my head to do a little lifehacking--and pay for it to boot--then for my money I want to hear what works, no matter how tough it may be. Stein doesn't disappoint me. If your idea of success is the sort you get from late night infomercials ("Lose weight with no money down!" "Get rich eating nothing but chocolate!") this book will disappoint you. (Remember what dear Wesley told Buttercup? "Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.") Stein emphasizes what truly successful people have always understood: Success = Work. Hard work, and lots of it. This lesson (really, the heart of the book) is summed up in Part V, Rule #4: `Life is a Process, and the Process Never Ends.' Successful people (not lottery winners and trustafarians) know that with success, "there is no sudden leap into the stratosphere of no cares and no worries. There's only advancing step by step, slowly and tortuously, up the pyramid toward your goals." Again, this may not be what you want to hear, but Stein offers enough wisdom and anecdotes (and a dab of his trademark dry humor) to demonstrate that true success in life is not about easy money but about hard work and steady progress. And that's the true joy of success.

Great book, but the bunkhouse logic analogy gets a little old

How Successful People Win gets a five-star review from me, even though I tend to be a little stingy on the stars. Self-help books in particular usually don't get my attention. Seems like almost anyone can write one, and does. But Ben Stein does do a great job of distilling valuable life lessons into teachings we can all benefit from. Frankly, I quickly tired of the analogy of life to a cowboy herding cattle. Seemed quite strained. Nonetheless, I never tired of the book. I even read it through, cover to cover, twice in two or three days. Can't remember the last book I did that with. I've read some of Ben Stein's other books -- How to Ruin Your Life and its ilk. Those were entertaining, but more fluff than substance. How Successful People Win definitely gives you a lot more to chew on.

A Quck and Fun read

I remember when i was reading the introduction, Mr Stein mentions that many of the observations have probably occurred to you but he's synthesizing them into a overal philosophy. True indeed. This book presents the basic rules of life, and rules of success. You can love them or hate them but you can't ignore them because they are contsants. The book is a very quick read, interesting, keeps you wanting to read more and is just a good book. After I bought this I want and bought his other two books on How to screw up your life and how to ruin your financial life. Well worth the price

The only person who can make your dreams come true is you. Here's how...

Rules for life are necessarily general in nature. Imagine if I gave you instructions on driving such as, "drive forward 320 feet and stop at the stop sign, wait for the yellow Dodge pickup truck on your left to go through, then proceed for a quarter mile". These instructions are so specific that they might never apply to any real world situation and certainly not one you will ever face. However, if I told you to stop you car at stop signs and proceed when the intersection is clear, you will be able to handle a great many different situations at four way stops (but not all). So, a handy book like the one Ben Stein provides here only seems simple because it is so concisely and clearly written. The proof that living is not very simple is how many lives are full of troubles. Yours, too? The author begins a story about when he was most miserable and uses that as a point of departure to help us end the misery in our own. The basic idea of this book is to use the idea of the American cowboy as an example of how one gets control of one's life and acquires what one really wants from life. The cowboy is active, decisive, and focused on his purposes and goals. The cattle must be rounded up and driven to the city were they will be sold. There are no excuses, no alternatives, and no one else will come in and do the work for him. Nor would he want them to. The book is in five parts. The first part introduces us to Stein's story about his own life and the Spirit of the cowboy. Part II frames what Bunkhouse logic is and what it is not. Part III provides some basic thoughts about life, but really makes an argument that anything worthwhile in life is going to involve risk. That is, you might experience actual loss and pain in pursuit of your dreams. Frankly, you almost certainly will experience loss and pain. But the pain makes the eventual success so sweet. These first three parts take only the first fifteen pages. The fourth section contains discussions of three propositions that we need to accept in order to even get started with Bunkhouse Logic. They are: 1) Decide What You Want, 2) Ask for What You Want, and 3) You Can't Win If You Aren't At the Table. These seem simple, but the hardest and most fundamental part of achieving a goal is setting one that is worth fighting for, but still achievable. And one that matters enough to arouse your passions to keep you in the fight once it is begun. Overcoming fear and asking for what you want also stops a number of folks. However, the most important person to ask for help in achieving your dreams is you. And then you need to get into the game and play to win. The fifth section, and the bulk of the book, discusses ten rules for success that are all good and helpful. You can read the book in a few hours, but you will be better off reading a section or a single rule and then meditating about it for a day or maybe even two to really think through what you believe about it. It is easy to dream