What Would Machiavelli Do? : The Ends Justify the Meanness

by Bing, Stanley

• ISBN13: 9780066620114
• ISBN10: 0066620112
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-11-18
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

<P>How did the rich and powerful individuals who move the earth get where they are today? Are they smarter? Faster? Better looking? Certainly not. Some are even short and ugly. What, then, is their edge?</P><P>The answer is simple: they're meaner. That's all. And if you want to get where they're going, you'll be meaner, too.</P><P>The good news is that once you get started, it's easy. Walking in the steps of the Florentine master, Stanley Bing will show you how to be all the Machiavelli you can be. How to beat people who are smarter than you are. How to make other people cringe and whimper when you enter a room. How to get what you want when you want it whether you deserve it or not. Without fear. Without emotion. Without finger-wagging morality. One scalp at a time.</P><P>They do it. You can too.</P><P><I>What Would Machiavelli Do?</I> is more than a road map for people who want to get to the top and stay there. It's a way of life you can use at home as well as at the office. A way of seeing other people from 50,000 feet--as teeny-tiny ants you can squish. A simple, detailed plan for those with the courage to leave kindness and decency behind, to seize the future by the throat and make it cough upmoney, power and superior office space.</P><P>Some books are not for everybody. This one is. So start reading. Or get out of here. You're beginning to get on our nerves.</P>

Author Biography

Stanley Bing is a columnist for Fortune magazine, which he joined in 1995 after a decade writing a monthly column for Esquire magazine. When he is not commenting on corporate life, Bing works for an enormous multinational conglomerate whose identity is one of the worst-kept secrets in business.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Preface	xiii
Introduction	xvii
What Would Machiavelli Do?
He would exploit himself only slightly less than he exploits others	1	(2)
He would be unpredictable, and thus gain the advantage	3	(3)
He would be in love with his destiny	6	(2)
He would be, for the most part, a paranoid freak	8	(4)
He would always be at war	12	(4)
He would cultivate a few well-loved enemies	16	(5)
He would have a couple of good friends, too	21	(1)
He would acquire his neighbor	22	(3)
He would think BIG	25	(2)
He would move forward like a great shark, eating as he goes	27	(2)
He would kill people, but only if he could feel good about himself afterward	29	(8)
He would fire his own mother, if necessary	37	(4)
He would make a virtue out of his obnoxiousness	41	(3)
He would be way upbeat!	44	(1)
He would be satisfied with nobody but himself	45	(2)
He would treat himself right	47	(5)
She would view her gender as both a liability and an asset	52	(6)
He would use what he's got	58	(2)
He would embrace his own madness	60	(4)
He would do what he feels like doing, you idiot	64	(5)
He would say what he felt like saying	69	(2)
He would delegate all the crummy tasks, except the ones he enjoys	71	(1)
He wouldn't exactly seek the company of ass-kissers and bimbos, but he wouldn't reject them out of hand, either	72	(1)
He would respond poorly to criticism	73	(1)
He would carry a grudge until the extinction of the cockroach	74	(3)
He would lie when it was necessary	77	(4)
He would be proud of his cruelty and see it as strength	81	(4)
He would kick ass and take names	85	(4)
He would permanently cripple those who disappoint him	89	(4)
He would torture people until they were only too happy to destroy themselves	93	(3)
He would feast on other people's discord	96	(3)
He would make you fear for you life	99	(2)
He would be loyal to the people who could up with all this	101	(5)
He would have no patience for anyfuckingbody	106	(1)
He would screw with people's weekends, wedding plans, open-heart surgery...	107	(1)
He would put it in you face	108	(2)
He would realize that loving yourself means never having to say you're sorry	110	(7)
He would have no conscience to speak of	117	(3)
He would scream at people a lot	120	(3)
He would establish and maintain a psychotic level of control	123	(4)
He would follow the money, honey	127	(4)
He wouldn't be afraid to sling that bullshit	131	(6)
He would eat to kill	137	(5)
He would never retire	142	(2)
He would have fun	144	(1)
Afterword: What Would Machiavelli Not Do?	145