Asshole: How I Got Rich & Happy by Not Giving a Damn About Anyone & How You Can, Too | 
| Author: Martin Kihn
Publisher: Broadway
Category: Book
List Price: $22.95
Buy New: $7.99
You Save: $14.96 (65%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 116314
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.7 x 1
ISBN: 0767927265
Dewey Decimal Number: 818.602
EAN: 9780767927260
ASIN: 0767927265
Publication Date: April 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Nice guys, pushovers, soft-touches and suckers:
Tired of being walked all over?
When the waiter brings you something you didn’t order, do you assume he knows best?
Are you ready to demand the respect you deserve?
Martin Kihn doesn’t care what your answers are, because of course you need this book. Watch and learn as this one-time softy transforms himself into a lean, mean a-hole machine.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 I always read one star reviews first. June 4, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
First of all you'll need to get a different cover. This will do.
Italian Duo-Tone Footprints Medium-Size Book/Bible Cover
Take it to the library with you when you go to check it out, if you are planning to read it in public. They passed these around to the hospital staff (so we could treat more patients faster and make billable diagnoses) and I nearly killed an Elder holding the E.R. door for her with this book carelessly tucked under my arm.
Because I've talked to several people who have read this book and still can't say the title, I doubt it's ability to inspire change, unlike this one.
Vaccine Free Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Contagious Disease with Homeopathy
 A great 'feel good' read May 25, 2008
This book is just plain fun. From the title, you may get the wrong impression but I can tell you, it'd be really hard to read this book and not really sympathize with the author.
Basically, he's a little bit of all of us. He's a down to Earth guy who plays by the rules and has a good heart. Even when he outlines his rules of being an ahole, he won't for instance cheat on his wife. He says it's because he's afraid of retaliation, but read through the book and you'll no doubt see that's not the case at all - he truly loves his wife and considers her his closest friend. But such sentiment doesn't jibe with the image of being an ahole that he's trying to create.
Going through the book, you find a guy that loves his wife, loves dogs, cares about the 'little' people, and constantly goes out of his way to be a decent human being. He mentions this as proof of how he always gets pushed around and beaten down, but his 'miserable' life is one that few people could keep from envying (Loving attractive wife, Vice President of his company, liked by all of his employees, a really awesome dog etc etc)
The jerks in the book that he aspires to become are so utterly loathsome (As bad as "Nemisis" is, the short bald guy in the rental care line is the worst) that it's clear he could never truly be like any of them. But as he transforms, he really is funny and entertaining.
And even after he becomes a full fledged ahole, well, I don't think it really worked. It's a really funny book and one that I think pretty much anyone can relate to. Throughout it, he's showing that even though aholes seem to win so often, they really don't.
 It's a parody, not a scientific essay May 17, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book isn't what I expected. I've read all of the how-to-deal-with-a-corporate-bully books. This time, I wanted one written by a bully to see how they think and why they bully nice people like me. This is a humorous, part fiction, part embellishment, part real life, part movie script parody of a "nice guy" worker trying to climb the corporate ladder while the "mean guy" steps all over him and gets ahead. The "nice guy" studies the "mean guy's" habits which seem to work at putting him higher on the corporate ladder while the "nice guy" is left behind. The "nice guy" adopts the "mean guy's" habits through various means which is pretty funny. Once I figured out that it wasn't what I wanted, I kept reading anyway because it was a good laugh. As an aside, my husband is kind of a "mean guy" at work and sometimes at home. I work with him, so I know that he is mean at work. I was laughing out loud as we were taking a long road trip, so I started reading him a passage from the book on how "mean guys" interrupt and talk over people to gain control of a conversation. Before I could get to the second paragraph about interrupting, my husband interrupted me and yelled, "How long is this going to take? I really don't like the title of that book. It offends me, blah, blah, blah." When he finally finished, I explained that it's only two paragraphs and it was funny and I asked if I could continue. He agreed, so I continued reading the passage when he interrupted me again, this time louder to tell me he interrupts me because I never get to the point. I repeated I had only one sentence left to read of the two paragraphs. He sighed and let me continue. Then I finally got to the part about a "real mean guy" interrupts constantly and gets louder with each interruption. He then yelled, "The reason I interrupt is because I don't like you holding me hostage while you read me this (expletive deleted)." I looked at him and said, "I'm right here, you don't need to yell. We haven't spoken for the first 100 miles of this trip and we have 200 more to go. How am I holding you hostage? Do you have somewhere else to go outside of this car in the next 30 seconds?" He recognized himself as what he is. Hmmmmmmmmm. We both had a good laugh. If you want a "scientific" book on why mean people are the way they are and what you can do about it, read "Taming the Abrasive Manager" by Laura Crawshaw.
Funny perspectives May 3, 2008
45 out of 48 found this review helpful
Nothing subtle in this piece. Kihn takes you through his personality discovery phase, going from being walked all over to success and control in all aspects of his life. An over-the-top Alpha male tale for pursuing what you want in a hurry, without apology.
And why not?
Is life really about pleasing others at the expense of your own good times? Martin covers a lot of ground here, with the focus being creating the dog eat dog attitude which ultimately leads to his business success. Through chapters, he happily finds numerous targets to make fun of, particularly the limp-wristed girly men and assorted PC idiots that throw up roadblocks during his journey. Tons of LOLs throughout the ride.
Yes. Men want to hear that stuff. It's all true.
After you laugh your butt off reading this one, pick up The Professional Bachelor Dating Guide - How to Exploit Her Inner Psycho. The same chest thumping Man's man perspective, geared towards conquering the dating world.
Thanks for the laughs Martin. Look forward to the next one.
It's definitely funny, but it has a soul too. April 28, 2008
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
Martin Kihn didn't set out to write the next War and Peace, but that didn't stop him from lavishing some real care on the writing and character of this book. I read plenty of heavy stuff and this looked like it would be a nice book to read as a light-hearted breather. I got that, but I got more too.
The concept of Kihn's book is inherently attractive to anyone who's ever felt like they're being taken advantage of because they're just too nice. Kihn had that feeling and decided to do something about it by making himself into this book's title character. That's the first thing that sets this book apart from a typical farce, it taps into an anxiety that is all too familiar for a lot of us.
The second thing that makes this book a lot better than it might have been is how carefully Kihn cultivates a sense of going on an existential journey. He hires guides and advisers, finally stumbling upon an acting coach as his most successful "guru." As you read, you pick up on subtle changes in tone as Kihn transforms himself from Beta male to the not-so-kind leader of the pack. Kihn packs the book with one funny scenario and description after another, but he always holds onto the core philosophical question about whether nice guys do really finish last. To find out the answer, you'll just have to read the book.
It's Kihn's ability to successfully marry the shallow with the deep that lifts this book above its station. So why just four stars? Well, it's still a book about attempting to be a jerk to make your life better. We have to leave some room for War and Peace.
Recommended for anyone looking for a light and funny read with a soul who can handle a generous helping of vulgarity along the way.
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