Back when Quirk Books set up shop in a reclaimed sausage factory in south Philly, no one guessed the company was destined for world domination. Founder Dave Borgenicht was mostly a failed freelance writer (“I spent more time as a freelance waiter”), but he had an idea for a funny reference book: a field guide to facing the kinds of sticky situations only 007 ends up in. The result, The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook, caught the break of the Y2K wave and propelled Borgenicht into spin-off riches. Calendars, board games, and a short-lived television series followed, along with seven Worst-Case sequels, all published by Chronicle Books. (WCSSH: College gets hazed this fall.)
Emboldened by the Handbook’s success—3 million copies have sold in 26 languages—Borgenicht hired a staff, took over three floors of a building in Philly’s Old Town (home to Urban Outfitters, one of the first retailers to stock the Worst Case books), and signed off on a series of empire-building sorties under the Quirk imprint. The latest, I’m Fine! A Really Helpful Guide to the First 100 Days After Your Breakup, offers a post-dump recovery plan. (Among the prophylaxes on offer: how not to cave in and call your ex—just to, you know, find out how he’s doing.) Borgenicht, meanwhile, is living the dream: “When I was growing up, I always said that I wanted to get paid for my stupid ideas,” he says. “Now I am.”