Forbes® Best Business Mistakes: How Today's Top Business Leaders Turned Missteps into Success

Chapter 26. BEN STEIN

Speechwriter for two U.S. presidents

Author, actor, lawyer, economist, columnist

He was also Ferris Bueller's what? Anyone ...

When I interviewed him for this book, I just had to ask Ben Stein something that had been on my mind. Several years ago I was anchoring a cable business show and he was one of the guests. He was joining us from a studio in Los Angeles and at one point I asked him a question, but he didn't respond. So I went with the obvious: "Bueller ... Bueller ..."

Crickets. And when he did finally say something, he didn't reference it. So I figured I must have ticked him off by reducing this accomplished author, lawyer, columnist, and economist to his iconic role as the boring teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

"No, not at all," he told me. "I didn't hear you. If I had I would have said something. I love being teased about Ferris Bueller and I will never get tired of it."

That surprised me a little bit because it's not the most creative thing a person could throw his way. "No," he says. "I go through the airport and people say 'Bueller ... Bueller ...' all day long to me and I never get tired of it. I like the attention. I don't want to be anonymous; I want the attention."

That's one of the engaging things about Ben Stein—his sense of humor. In fact, when he says something serious, sometimes it still sounds funny. When he rails against a politician as a guest on CNN or Fox News Channel, it often sounds so humorous that you can't always tell at first whether ...