Ben Stein - 26 Steps to Succeed In Hollywood...or Any Other Business

Other Hay House Titles by Ben Stein

THE GIFT OF PEACE

HOW SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE WIN

HOW TO RUIN YOUR FINANCIAL LIFE

HOW TO RUIN YOUR LIFE hardcover
(also available as an audio book)

HOW TO RUIN YOUR LOVE LIFE

HOW TO RUIN YOUR LIFE (tradepaper, which comprises
the three HOW TO RUIN titles above)

WHAT YOUR KIDS NEED TO KNOW
ABOUT MONEY AND SUCCESS

By Ben Stein and Phil DeMuth

CAN AMERICA SURVIVE?

YES, YOU CAN BE A SUCCESSFUL INCOME INVESTOR!

YES, YOU CAN STILL RETIRE COMFORTABLY!

All of the above are available at your
local bookstore, or may be ordered by visiting:

Hay House USA: www.hayhouse.com
Hay House Australia: www.hayhouse.com.au
Hay House UK: www.hayhouse.co.uk
Hay House South Africa: orders@psdprom.co.za
Hay House India: www.hayhouseindia.co.in

Copyright 2006 by Ben Stein and Al Burton

Published and distributed in the United States by: Hay House, Inc.: www.hayhouse.com Published and distributed in Australia by: Hay House Australia Pty. Ltd.: www.hayhouse.com.au Published and distributed in the United Kingdom by: Hay House UK, Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.uk Published and distributed in the Republic of South Africa by: Hay House SA (Pty), Ltd.: orders@psdprom.co.za Distributed in Canada by: Raincoast: www.raincoast.com Published in India by: Hay House Publications (India) Pvt. Ltd.: www.hayhouseindia.co.in Distributed in India by: Media Star: booksdivision@mediastar.co.in

Editorial supervision: Jill Kramer Design: Tricia Breidenthal

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise be copied for public or private useother than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviewswithout prior written permission of the publisher.

The authors of this book do not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the authors is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the authors and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Stein, Benjamin.
26 steps to succeed in Hollywoodor any other business / Ben Stein and Al Burton.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4019-0700-6 (hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-4019-0700-8 (hardcover)
1. Motion picturesVocational guidance. 2. Vocational guidance. I. Title:
Twenty-six steps to succeed in Hollywoodor any other business. II. Burton, Al,
1928- III. Title.
PN1995.9.P75S73 2006
791.430293dc22 2005025453

ISBN 13: 978-1-4019-0700-6
ISBN 10: 1-4019-0700-8

09 08 07 06 4 3 2 1
1st printing, June 2006

Printed in the United States of America

I am a psychologist by training, and psychologists are more accustomed to looking at Skinner boxes than at Hollywood. A Skinner box, for those who have forgotten their Psych 101, is a box in which rats press a bar in order to receive food pellets (or various other contingencies). I mention this because Hollywood is a gilded Skinner box where some bar presses result in a food pellet coming down the chute (in the form of a life-changing check hitting your bank balance), while still others can deliver an electric shock, and most do absolutely nothing at all. I have had considerable opportunity to observe Ben Stein and Al Burton operating in Hollywood for a number of years now. What I have noticed about them is how many of their bar presses have been of the first variety, the ones that lead to the big payday.

When I met Ben in the mid-1990s, he was better known to me as the author of a sensational self-help book called Bunkhouse Logic than as the character actor who immortalized the unlikely line, Bueller Bueller In fact, lets stop right here and consider what that already tells us about the path to success through the labyrinth of Hollywood.

Bueller Bueller is not exactly a tee up for an Academy Award. It is not Heres looking at you, kid or I coulda been a contender. But Ben took this opportunity and changed it into movie magic, into movie history. It was instantly unforgettable, and crashedif not into Bartlettsat least into our everyday vocabulary. With two words, every member of the audience suddenly relived all of the high school they thought they had forgotten. It became the single funniest moment of a film studded with hilarious moments. From an actors point of view, this is not hitting the ball out of the park: This is hitting the jacket off the ball and pulverizing the ball into charmed quarks. Offhand, I cannot think of another example when so much was made out of so little.

Ben Stein did not become a star because of his looks or suntan or charisma. He was given a very tiny opportunity, and he took it to the fourth dimension. This is called adding value to a production, and Hollywood loves people who add value and rewards them copiously. Right there is a major lesson about Hollywood. Do not be a person who stands around the copy machine complaining. Be someone who adds value and you will be loved.

But Ben did not let this overnight success go to his head. He did not thereafter think of himself as the next Olivier and start demanding two star trailers with an attached tanker of Evian water so he could shower in it (as one star we know did). He did not keep a glove box filled with cocaine and start doing threesomes with the Olsen twins in the back of a limousine in the parking lot at Mortons (or if he did, he never told me about it!). Instead, he maintained an astute sense of his own insignificant place in the Hollywood food chainan insignificant place that, ultimately, is shared by everyone (for example, Michael Ovitz). I remember proposing some big idea for a show to him once, which he rejected out of hand. Why? You cant push a string, he told me, matter-of-factly, referring to his own heat quotient at the time. (Incidentally, there is a term in Hollywood for those people who have big ideas for movies and TV shows: They are called the general public.)

But Ben made sure he was friendly and easy to deal with, and deal with him people did and people doagain and again. I think that being utterly realistic about his place in the worldneither grandiose nor needlessly self-effacinghas contributed significantly to Bens mental health over the course of his Hollywood career, which, like all Hollywood careers, is strewn with manic-depressive highs and lows that are practically guaranteed to make you crazy at those times other than when you are being simply ignored, which is most of the time, and which is worse.