The Upside of Downside

SPECIAL INSTALLMENT: ASH WEDNESDAY
These days redemption is cheap, and disgrace is a ticket to fame and financial success. If you don't think so, just ask Jayson Blair, Stephen Glass, Liz Grubman or Mike Barnicle. So whatever happened to sackcloth and ashes?

Plagiarize.

That's a good first step, if you're looking for success. But if writing is not your thing, you can always lie to Congress, run over revelers with your SUV, practice mail and wire fraud or work for the mob and whack a few guys.

Point is, the step toward fame and a financial fortune is to do something bad. Then, get caught. Next, make the national news. Temporarily face dishonor, disgrace and infamy. Give interviews. Tell all. Say you're sorry -- or not. Grant more interviews. Wait five minutes. Get contract offers from publishers, movie moguls, TV or radio stations. Find yourself quickly restored to society. Last -- make oodles of money.

This pattern is the new scenario for success, American-style. Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, commenting on the Kobe Bryant case, was quoted as saying, "From a business perspective, it's great for the NBA. It's reality television, people love train wreck television and you hate to admit it, but that is the truth, that's the reality...