Here’s a Genre I Rarely See: the “business novel,” aka, a corporate manifesto in the guise of fiction. When I got a message at LinkedIn from author Todd Hagopian, asking me to check out his “business novel” via NetGalley, I was skeptical.
But then I read his bio. He calls himself “The Stagnation Assassin.”
I took the bait.
The Unfair Advantage
Weaponizing the Hypomanic Toolbox
by Todd Hagopian
Pub Date: Jan 20 2026 | Köehler Books
For fifteen years, Todd Hagopian climbed the corporate ladder at lightning speed while battling bipolar disorder that both fueled remarkable success and nearly destroyed him. When medication stabilized his mind, he faced an impossible ultimatum: Be healthy or be successful.
He refused – and created the HOT system to declare war on stagnation. The Unfair Advantage: Weaponizing the Hypomanic Toolbox follows struggling manufacturing president Jack Whelan as he meets Eugene Spark, an eccentric bipolar billionaire who teaches him to weaponize hypomanic thinking patterns into systematic business transformation.
Sounds Like an Advertising Gimmick, Right?
Make your business more profitable by adapting mental-health coping mechanisms.Hey, why not?
“The Unfair Advantage” has already won the Firebird Book Award and Literary Titan Book Award, with endorsements from Howard Behar (former President of Starbucks), Jeff Liker (author of The Toyota Way), and other business leaders who’ve called it “the best business novelization since The Goal.”
I had to look it up: “The Goal” by Israeli physicist/management guru Eliyahu M. Goldratt is “one of the most influential business books of all time.
A bestseller since it was first published in 1984, the business novel has sold over 7 million copies” and is frequently reprinted.
The plot: A harried plant manager has been given 90 days to save his failing factory, or corporate headquarters will close it down and hundreds of workers will lose their jobs. As the hero identifies problems and works with his team to find solutions, the reader learns about Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints.
Hagopian’s premise is similar but it has a hook I couldn’t resist: the idea that so many great business leaders are driven in part by a DSM-5 condition, hypomania, which could be debilitating, but could also energize people and enable them to do great things.
“Revolutionize Your Business Using Bipolar-inspired Strategies”
In The Unfair Advantage, Todd Hagopian spins DSM-5 level disorders as strategic assets. He uses the fictional format of a novel to show how a bipolar billionaire helps others transform hypomanic traits into strategies “anyone” can implement.
“Everyone has the potential for hypomanic thinking. It’s not about changing who you are. It’s about unlocking parts of yourself you never knew existed.”
“Anyone” Can Learn to Channel The Upside of Hypomania?
Sign me up!
Many brilliant creatives with bipolar traits are household names. Artists, musicians, inventors (Beethoven, Van Gogh, Isaac Newton), dynamos of business (Andrew Carnegie, Ted Turner, Elon Musk), political leaders (Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill), the list is long and dazzling. Call it bipolar, call it hypomanic – the common denominator is extreme energy, passion, accomplishment, and a remarkable ability to hyperfocus.
“You’re buzzing with energy, need almost no sleep, and feel like you’re on top of the world,” Hagopian writes in the prologue. “Ideas come fast and furiously. But there’s a catch – this heightened state can lead to risky behavior.”
Too many late nights and missed dinners, too many commitments, too many projects, too much stress. Grandiose ideas, reckless spending, blackouts, “wild, dramatic, hypomanic episodes followed by severe dips into bipolar depression,” then various ways to crash and burn, and maybe suicidal ideation.
Can a life coach or a corporate leader really help us become more like the movers and shakers who revolutionize the world?
Hagopian’s novel introduces us to Jack Whelan, the struggling president of Cartwell Manufacturing, maker of shopping carts. Competition is up, profits are down, stress is driving Jack to drink.
Spending too time at work, neglecting his wife and kids, has cost him his marriage. Jack, discouraged and doubtful, walks out of a conference led by Eugene Spark, a billionaire with bipolar disorder and two failed suicide attempts.
A Meeting Changes a Bad Trajectory
Eugene finds Jack at the bar and starts chatting. After a few drinks, Eugene bets that he can save Jack’s company using the HOT (Hypomanic Operational Turnaround) System.
He knows Jack’s predicament all too well, having lost his wife and family and however many businesses.
But: never give up! Keep making a comeback!
Manics and bipolars possess a competitive edge, if they can harness their creativity, energy, risk-taking, and bold ideas – an “unfair advantage.”
We join the brainstorming sessions as Eugene presents a toolbox of go-to remedies, such as the 80/20 Matrix and Karelin Method. Lists, spreadsheets, and meetings come to life as weary, overworked employees complain about the hurdles and obstacles at Cartwell Manufacturing.
This will sound all too familiar to anyone working in corporate: “Every suggestion, every question had been met with resistance. His team, the very people he relied on to drive Cartwell forward, seemed entrenched in their ways, unwilling or unable to envision the change he knew was necessary.”
Automation vs manual labor is an issue. The machines are prone to breakage. Overtime eats profits, and most employees don’t want to work ten-hour days or seven-day weeks, but some do.
Starting The Transformation
Hagopian gives us pages full of charts, numbers, reports, complaints, and protests. Much of this is skimmable. Anyone who reads every word and every chart deserves a paycheck.
The human side of the company kept me turning pages. One of Eugene’s first moves is to downsize and lay off some of the managers.
Jack has to make hard decisions, firing some nice people, and some not-so-nice managers who’ve overstayed their time with the company and impeded progress.
He promotes good workers. He lightens the load for blue-collar employees burnt out by six- or seven-day workweeks with No Life Outside the Company. He keeps the overtime going for those who need the extra income.
As Jack implements Eugene’s “tools,” Cartwell is transformed. The star engineer gets to innovate. Dave, the endearing manager with the special-needs son, rises through the ranks. Efficiency improves, morale skyrockets, and profits replace losses.
Naturally, Eugene does what so many DSM-5 patients do (i.e., they go off their meds, they forget their “toolbox,” or for whatever reason, they crash and burn).
The company’s six-month transformation is now at risk. Can Jack manage to carry on all he’s learned from Eugene and save the business?
Spoiler
SPOILER (sort of, not really): Eugene has to stay medicated with prescription drugs to keep functioning. These Rx remedies are universally hated for a reason.
While I do not like the message that “manic” creative people need to be drugged, I recognize how hard it is to manage without some kind of treatment.
Australian-born author Rod Usher so vividly illustrates this in “Florid States,” a brilliant novel about a schizophrenic. Usher’s prose is poetic and lyrical.
I cannot say Hagopian writes like a poet, but most best-selling authors do not.
Hagopian’s writing style is engaging but sometimes jarring. I lost count of the times Jack felt “a mix of exhaustion and exhilaration” or “a mix of relief and excitement” or “noticed the mixture of curiosity and skepticism on their faces.”
How many times did he feel “a wave of emotion wash over him,” a flutter of excitement, a surge of gratitude, a warmth spreading through his chest?
I had to read parts of this book more than once. Did I miss the explanation on how, exactly, ordinary people can harness the cognitive advantages of hypomania without the destructive components?
Action Messages
Messages like these are not new:
“Work harder, work smarter, focus on what truly matters, and believe in your ability to succeed.”
“Develop game-changing insights through deep customer and competitor understanding.”
Smashing Orthodoxies: Challenge “that’s how we’ve always done it” thinking to create breakthrough innovations.
I confess I didn’t find myself turning over a new leaf as a result of reading this book. I do find myself paying more attention to the craftsmanship, care, and maintenance of shopping carts. (I kid you not.)
I’m still wondering how exactly anyone can start channeling the creativity, drive, discipline, and energy manifested by the movers and shakers of the world.
Even so, I believe entrepreneurs, business owners, managers, workers, consumers, anyone who feels stuck could learn something from this book.
Todd Hagopian, Bipolar Businessman, Author, Thought Leader
Business Fiction novel illustrates HOT System (Hypomanic Operational Turnaround System) #Business #GraphicNovel #LiteraryFiction #Marketing #Self-Help https://books.hypomanictoolbox.com/
