
Failing upward, new Gilded Age edition part infinity - smacktoward
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2018/03/failing-upward-new-gilded-age-edition-part-infinity
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buttcoinslol
"Colonel Cargill was so awful a marketing executive that his services were
much sought after by firms eager to establish losses for tax purposes. His
prices were high, for failure often did not come easily. He had to start at
the top and work his way down, and with sympathetic friends in Washington,
losing money was no simple matter. It took months of hard work and careful
misplanning. A person misplaced, disorganized, miscalculated, overlooked
everything and open every loophole, and just when he thought he had it made,
the government gave him a lake or a forest or an oilfield and spoiled
everything. Even with such handicaps, Colonel Cargill could be relied on to
run the most prosperous enterprise into the ground. He was a self-made man who
owed his lack of success to nobody." -Joseph Heller, Catch-22

I always enjoy seeing character archetypes from Catch-22 in the flesh.

~~~
OrganicMSG
I sense strong elements of Milo Minderbinder in there too -

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“If they had any loyalty, they would buy my cotton till it hurts so that they
can keep right on buying my cotton till it hurts them some more. They would
build fires and burn up their underwear and summer uniforms just to create a
bigger demand. But they won’t do a thing. Yossarian, try eating the rest of
this chocolate-covered cotton for me. Maybe it will taste delicious now.”

Yossarian pushed his hand away. “Give up, Milo. People can’t eat cotton.”

Milo’s face narrowed cunningly. “It isn’t really cotton,” he coaxed. “I was
joking. It’s really cotton candy, delicious cotton candy. Try it and see.”

“Now you’re lying.”

“I never lie!” Milo rejoindered with proud dignity.

“You’re lying now.”

“I only lie when it’s necessary,” Milo explained defensively, averting his
eyes for a moment and blinking his lashes winningly. “This stuff is better
than cotton candy, really it is. It’s made out of real cotton. Yossarian,
you’ve got to help me make the men eat it. Egyptian cotton is the finest
cotton in the world.”

“But it’s indigestible,” Yossarian emphasized. “It will make them sick, don’t
you understand? Why don’t you try living on it yourself if you don’t believe
me.”

“I did try,” admitted Milo gloomily. “And it made me sick.”

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roywiggins
It's possible his job at Toys R Us was to run it into the ground. It had been
loaded up with so much debt that extracting all the remaining value and going
bankrupt might have been the actual plan.

~~~
DoreenMichele
Kind of like the sentiment in _Other People 's Money_ about "You're dead. You
just aren't broke yet."

Or something.

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aaronbrethorst
I appreciate that the plaque celebrating the "gifted" Brandons has a typo on
it. Feels appropriate to the tenor of the piece.

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throwawaynplus1
The cartoon version.

[https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/anything](https://www.smbc-
comics.com/comic/anything)

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acobster
> _The Friday before I started, my wife, my assistant, and I came in after
> everybody left and worked all weekend. We ripped everything off the walls,
> painted, cleaned the carpet, emptied cupboards, put new art on the walls..._

Based on that plaque, I bet the new art was just _splendid_ and people
_really_ appreciated it.

