Synopses & Reviews
What Would Machiavelli Do?
- He would feast on other people's discord
- He wouldn't exactly seek the company of ass-kissers and bimbos, but he wouldn't reject them out of hand either
- He would realize that loving yourself means never having to say you're sorry
- He would kill people, but only if he could feel good about himself afterward
- He would establish and maintain a psychotic level of control
- He would use other people's opinions to sell his book!
Synopsis
A sly send-up of the successful What Would Jesus Do? books, here is a satisfyingly mean light-hearted approach to business success--the Machiavellian way.
Machiavellians may not get to heaven, but on earth they have a definite edge on the competition. In this pithy and discretely vicious guide, Stanley Bing shows how the Florentine master statesman and political thinker would handle today's myriad corporate challenges, seize the future by the throat, and make it cough up money, power, and superior office space. So, what exactly would Machiavelli do?
- He would exploit himself only slightly less than he exploits others.
- He would be in love with his destiny.
- He would, for the most part, be a paranoid freak.
- He would always be at war.
- He would cultivate a few well-loved enemies.
- He would have a couple of good friends, too.
- He would acquire his neighbor.
- He would think BIG.
- He would move forward like a great shark, eating as he goes.
- And much, much more.
More than a road map to success, this hands-on guide will help anyone get what they want, whether or not they deserve it.
About the Author
Stanley Bing has been reporting on corporate life since his own first bullshit job back in 1982, which isn't that different than the bullshit job he has now, only back then it was smaller. He is now an ultra-senior executive in a gigantic corporation whose identity is one of the worst-kept secrets in business, which is a joke he's been using for the last 10 years because he has always believed that if a specific piece of bullshit is effective, it's often smart to stay with it.
Beginning back at Esquire magazine in 1984, Bing moved to Fortune in 1995, and now occupies the back page of that no-bullshit publication. He is the author of three books for Collins, including the best-selling What Would Machiavelli Do? as well as Throwing the Elephant and most recently, Sun Tzu Was a Sissy. In addition, he has written two novels, Lloyd: What Happened and You Look Nice Today, which have been going through years of bullshit development in Hollywood.