Throwing the Elephant

By: Stanley Bing

Narrated by: Simon Jones, Philip Bosco

Two business classics, or one business classic and his new book, or two business books - however you want to describe it - here is Stanley Bing at his best - giving you the ying and the yang of the business world.If What Would Machiavelli Do? was the meanest business book in recent history - Throwing the Elephant provides the yang to that yin.The focus of What Would Machiavelli Do? is on what works and how to get it done. Machiavellians may not get to heaven, but on earth they have a significant edge over the competition. The goal is to learn how to approach problems in a manner that is at once creative, geared toward achieving financial success, and refreshingly amoral.Throwing the Elephant: Zen and the Art of Managing Up artfully, clearly, and concisely provides a thorough grounding in the Zen Buddhist attitude you will need in order to move forward and control the people you work for. This book guarantees personal enlightenment while providing literally dozens of helpful, specific exercises and solutions to the most common problems of professional life.

A bit out of date

Entertaining but not very useful. There are a couple tidbits but find a summary and skip the whole book.

An interesting take on an old topic

Not a ton of new ideas here, but a refreshing way to deliver age old wisdom on how you should be handling the relationship with your boss. I laughed out loud a couple times on the delivery.

Loved it!

I have listend to this book several times (rented from the library) and liked it enough to buy it. I think the reader is humorous and the content is very good, if you listen to what he is saying. The Zen attitude for corporate culture was refreshing and helpful. I would recommend this book to anyone (working for an elephant) who wants to learn how to accept the Zen way of thinking and apply it in the business world and help yourself have a better attitude about life.

original

Updated Zen business philosophy. Original content. Great voice actor. I hate homework so instead of writing a twenty word review, I'll just press the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ symbolizing that time is money.

I was not expecting this book to be hilarious

What made the experience of listening to Throwing the Elephant the most enjoyable?

The accent of the narrator makes this book so much more clever because it conjures images of watching a Nature channel with wise hints of Obi Wan. Brilliant.

What other book might you compare Throwing the Elephant to and why?

Having read/listened to stacks of business books, I was anticipating a business book to give me tips on getting ahead or whatever, and instead I'm getting zen lessons in throwing an elephant. Nothing like it. This book is remarkably clever. Things that used to annoy me about the elephant now just make me smile.