What Would Machiavelli Do? The Ends Justify the Meanness

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Editorial reviews

Product Description
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!

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Amazon.com Review
Machiavelli would feel at home in industry today. You don't need a birthright to be a modern prince--just an impulsive ruthlessness such as he described four centuries ago while trying to get back into the good graces of a Medici nobleman. A clever guy like him could really go places. Stanley Bing, a columnist for Fortune, is also a clever guy. In real life he has another name and works for a media company (a very, very clever person could probably patch together the clues he offers and figure out the company, if not the actual person), and as such he's been our spy behind corporate lines since he first started writing for Esquire back in 1984. In What Would Machiavelli Do? Bing gleefully offers hard-boiled Machiavellian advice about whom to fire in a downsizing (consultants first, secretaries last), how to make employees love you ("Give them perks.... When they're spending your money, you own them"), and why it's important that you also kick ass (one of the ways: "cutting them off curtly when they speak") and take names (so people know you'll not only hurt them, you'll also go after their friends). The overriding lesson of this book is always to love yourself, never apologize for anything you do, and when all else fails, recognize that the truth is flexible, and so can be bent any way you want. What makes all this amorality funny is that Bing plays it straight, putting his ruthless advice into an easily digestible how-to format. Sometimes the only way you can tell it's satire is when he mixes the musings of Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot in with those of modern business figures such as former Sunbeam CEO "Chainsaw" Al Dunlap. Firing people, killing people--same rules, different game. --Lou Schuler

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Customer reviews

review by: Michelle M. Griffin, PhD (abd) date: 2008-06-16 rating:
If you can't Fire them make them crazy!!!
I love this book. Corporate Politics is fun, no one likes to talk about it. This book hits home! The end does justify the meanness, that is why the one's who yell and scream at your office are still there and not fired.

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review by: Improving government for the average citizen date: 2007-12-19 rating:
A Strong But Amusing Warning on the Greed, Egotism, Narcissism, and Pure Evil of the Powerful
With this book, businessman and Fortune Magazine columnist Stanley Bing began a long and continuing career of attacking outrageous bosses and managerial practices. There is no shortage of material in these categories, and this book is a good introduction to how rich the field of managerial abuse is.

This is not a book for true Machiavelli fans. Those who want to savor the finely nuanced distinctions and advices of Machiavelli's THE PRINCE will not be able to do so here. Indeed Bing delivers a classic put-down to the man he calls "the master": "the fact that it's very difficult to understand anything the master says gets in the way of our ability to walk, straight and secure, down his path."

What we have dissected here is not Machiavelli the sagacious adviser and pioneer of the field of Political Science, but Machiavelli as a cultural icon standing for the extension of personal wealth and power to the exclusion of all other considerations. "To live true to the vision of the master, we must be as selfish, narcisstic, manipulative, driven and creative in getting what we want as we can be, not just in our important business actions, but where it really counts: in our hearts. You can do it. This book will help."

A true Machiavellian, in the author's sense of the term, would always be unpredictable, and thus would gain the advantage of keeping everyone else off balance. In love with his destiny, always at war, for the most part a paranoid freak, he would think BIG, acquire his neighbor, move like a shark, eating as he goes, killing people's careers, but only if he could feel good about himself afterwards.

A true Machiavellian would fire his own mother if necessary, make a virtue out of his obnoxiousness, be way upbeat, be satisfied with nobody but himself, embrace his own madness, do what he feels like doing, say what he feels like saying, delegate all the crummy tasks except the ones that he enjoys, respond poorly to criticism, perennially carry grudges, lie when necessary, be proud of his cruelty and see it as strength, permanently cripple those who disappoint him, torture people until they were only too happy to destroy themselves, feast on other people's discord, make you fear for your life, be loyal to people who could put up with him, have no patience for anybody, never say he's sorry, have no conscience to speak of, scream at people a lot, establish and maintain a psychotic level of control, would eat to kill, and would have fun with his career and his life.

The author drifts in and out of satire and sober evaluation. His concluding paragraph summarizes much of the book: "Good may often be its own--and only--reward in this competitive, malevolent, and unfair world. This may be most true in business, where the unsympathetic aspects of human character are compensated most lavishly. But evil does have its limitations, ones that even the biggest, baddest Machiavellis around should keep in mind."

This book would be a great supplement to courses on business ethics and courses on management. Its tongue in cheek evocations of Saddam Hussein, Mao Tse Tung, Joseph Stalin, Adolph Hitler, and Caligua grab attention and serve as a warning to the those humor-deprived people who might view sections of this book as a serious guide.

Its graphs--based on no hard information whatsoever--demonstrate serious points. The "normal world view" is that the vast majority of people are friends or potential friends while the "Machiavelli world view" is that the vast majority of people are enemies or potential enemies. "The bigger you are" the "less you like" criticism.

"Performance" is greater "with ruthless competition" than without it. The Machiavelli personality is high on fear, aggression, self, and golf to the exclusion of conscience and hobbies and to the marginalization of family and friends. The greater the control a Machiavelli has, the more fun he has. The joys of retirement--golf and not being bothered by idiots--wear off after a couple of years.

This book, in short, could be retitled "How to Succeed in Business by Failing as a Human Being." In the author's words, "only individuals who are monmaniacal and driven to the exclusion of all else stand a chance of rising to the top." The price of success, the author says, "is to adjust your personality to remove as much conscience as is possible." The price of getting to the top, the author makes clear, is not worth it by the rules of the modern day Machiavellis.

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review by: date: 2007-12-09 rating:
Get back to work, wage slaves!!!
This was a deliciously entertaining and thought-provoking book. When you think about all the hedge fund/private equity hawks, Russian billionaires and Mideast oil barons who are gobbling up real estate and stock exchanges left and right, you can't possibly believe they got to where they were by being 'nice'???

This book gives you a genuine insight into how ruthless and sociopathic the business world truly is.

I didn't believe that people could truly behave this way, but after toiling away in corporate america for 15 years, I can tell you that only the most amoral and cuthroat individuals get to the top. This book confirmed it for me albeit in a humorous way. Now I am happy to say that the spirit of Machievelli allowed me to get one over on Mr. Bing himself and read his book for free at the local public libary! Take that, Mr. Bing, hah, hah!

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review by: Copywriting for the Discriminating - - http://www.powerwriting.com date: 2007-10-01 rating:
It pays to be bad --- or does it?
I enjoyed this short read. It's funny. While we read what, in the opinion of the author, Machiavelli would do in the course of most all business situations, he ends the book saying, "But evil does have its limitations, ones that even the biggest, baddest Machiavellis around should keep in mind. That may be the very best --- and most useful--- lesson of all."

So one is left having to decide for himself how far he wants to take his Machiavellian ways. The author leaves it to the reader to make that decision.

You get no real answers in the book. It's not really a book of instruction. But there's a lot of truth. And, I think, a few lessons. I'm a bit surprised Leona Helmsley wasn't given as an example. Surely, the Queen of Mean deserves a place in a book of this sort.

I saw one major flaw in the author's take on what Machiavelli would do, however. Yes, he may have done everything the author claims he would have done. But he would have done one more thing. He would have appeared to do the opposite. That's the key to being a true Maciavellian.


review by: BookJewel8 date: 2007-09-25 rating:
Stress relief using sarcasm and humor.
What Would Machiavelli Do? The Ends Justify the Meanness is a is full of sarcastic humor that anyone who has had a "bad" boss can identify with 100%. Stanley Bing describes the many characteristics of tyrant and/or mean bosses with humor and sarcasm. So much is true and easily identifiable. Very fun book to read. Will help relieve any work stress you may have. I recommend this book.

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