Tucker Max has just published Asshole Finish First, as shown above, which reports more of Max's tales of drunkenness, sex, and general obnoxiousness. It is a sequel to his bestseller I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, which was made into a film that I did not see (but that got bad reviews). When I first read Max's proud claim that he was a professional asshole, I did an incredulous post, as I was — and remain — amazed that anyone would be proud to be an asshole because, as I have said here before, if you an asshole and you finish first, your are still an asshole, and therefore a loser in my book.
The odd thing about writing that post a couple years back was the reaction that I got from Tucker Max and a guy who worked for him. I describe it in the new chapter in the paperback version of the The No Asshole Rule:
The weirdest email exchange I had about bosses
was with Tucker Max and one of his subordinates. Max is the author of the
bestseller I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. His next book is called Assholes
Finish First. Max’s website says:
My name is Tucker Max, and I am an asshole.I get excessively drunk
at inappropriate times, disregard social norms, indulge every whim, ignore the
consequences of my actions, mock idiots and posers, sleep with more women than
is safe or reasonable, and just generally act like a raging dickhead.
When
I wrote on my blog that Max “appears to be a professional asshole,” he wrote me
several friendly notes and explained that he really wasn’t an asshole as I
define it. He further claimed “In five years, no more than ten, you are going
to do a profile of me and declare that I am a model boss, a CEO that all bosses
should base themselves on in some form or other.” The boss theme also came up
when one his underlings wrote to say that Max has “been a mentor to me and I
don't think ever violated that trust by being an asshole.” So, even a guy
who has made a ton of money being what I would call a professional asshole
denies he is a certified asshole by the standards here — and he has at least
one very loyal follower who admires Max because he has never acted like an
asshole boss!
Pretty weird, huh? Tucker, I am sorry, but I don't think I am ready yet to hold you up as a great human-being of any kind — but I guess you have another seven years to prove me wrong!
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