HOW TO BECOME FAMOUS

Great success requires talent, resilience, and a large dose of serendipity, according to this intriguing investigation.

Sunstein, a professor at Harvard Law School and author of numerous books on law and related subjects, admits early on that the title is something of a cheat. The author doesn’t intend his latest book to be a how-to manual; instead, he delivers a fascinating crash course on why some people—or bands or movies or works of art—become famous. Sunstein is wary of books that look for common attributes among people who have done well (especially in business) and then conclude that a particular characteristic is the reason. This is confusing correlation with causation, he notes, and ignores individuals who have that attribute but do not reach the pinnacle. Sunstein argues for a wider frame of reference, looking at numerous cases such as the Beatles, Muhammed Ali, Bob Dylan, and Stan Lee, although he admits that his list is largely a collection of personal favorites. Simply being very good at what you do is not enough, and the author cites cases of people who had remarkable talent but were unable to reach peak success. There is a great deal of luck involved, and it extends to having the right skin color, the right parents, and a mentor or champion and being in the right place at the right time, as well as untold other elements. True, famous people might have been able to take advantage of the good fortune that came their way, but that ability is itself a complex variable. Some readers may want a firmer conclusion, but the author is not one for easy answers. Ultimately, the text is an engaging study of the lottery that is life.

Sunstein weaves research and storytelling into a book that contains not only provocative insights, but a lot of fun.