A few months ago, as the brain trust at Despair Inc. brainstormed new ways to demotivate people in 2001, an online store called boo.com shut down. After spending $135 million and selling little of anything, boo’s founders blamed their spectacular failure on being “too visionary.”
And the Dallas company that celebrates incompetence, pessimism and workplace dysfunction had plenty of inspiration. “All that money and they didn’t even learn any lesson,” says Despair’s Justin Sewell. “So blame and delusion and pretension just sort of naturally suggested themselves for our new calendar.”
One classic demotivator pictures a ship, half-sunk in the ocean, with the caption “MISTAKES — It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.”
Their debut calendar, offering such monthly lessons as PROCRASTINATION, DEFEAT and STUPIDITY, sold 15,000 copies. Sales doubled for the 2000 edition that highlighted DOUBT, IDIOCY and LAZINESS.
More Top Picks Best Diorama Supplies For Model Building
He acknowledges that many of the basic themes of failure are getting used up, which is why they’re so grateful to boo.com. “They really helped us focus on the hubris of dot.com fiascoes,” he says. “So we structured the calendar so it starts with DELUSIONS and PRETENSIONS and winds its way to INSANITY and BITTERNESS.”