You might remember Peter Arnell from his embarrassing rebrandings of Pepsi and Tropicana, or maybe for being an evil, foot-rub demanding boss. Now the branding wizard owes HarperCollins $100,000, for sucking, at books.

Three years ago, Arnell sold a "personal branding" book to the publisher for $550,000, CityFile reports. It was a nice, tidy coup, particularly since Arnell didn't even have to write the thing himself.

But one year and two ghostwriters later, the marketing maven — with help from his wife and personal assistant, naturally — had produced just 25,000 of the agreed-upon 80,000 words. Now he has to give HarperCollins' $100,000 upfront payment back, after losing his absurd court battle to keep the money.

Book or none, it turns out Arnell has conveyed an important lesson about "personal branding:" Do not take business advice from a hustler who blew an easy, 500-grand score from his last mark.