He joined the Benton & Bowles advertising agency in 1936 as a mail-room clerk, and worked his way up to a vice-presidency by the time he left in 1956 to pursue a writing career.
It satirizes Mead's own career by depicting the rise of eager young J. Pierrepont Finch ... a window-washer who joins a huge corporation by starting in the mail room, and becomes chairman of the board a week later.
The play starred Robert Morse as the young striver J. Pierrepont Finch and Rudy Vallee as the company president J.B. Biggley.
In Brazil, the book, titled in Portuguese Como Vencer na Vida sem Fazer Força, was translated by Brazilian dramaturgist Glaucio Gil and published in 1963.
The book got two Brazilian prefacies written by Sérgio Porto using the pseudonym "Stanislaw Ponte Preta" and the name of his fictitious cousin "Altamirando".