- Hardcover: 204 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; 1 edition (19 Dec 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0060188618
- ISBN-13: 978-0060188610
- Product Dimensions: 18.3 x 11.7 x 2.8 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,275,916 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Throwing the Elephant: Zen and the Art of Managing Up
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
What would the Buddha do - if he had to deal with a rampaging elephant of a boss every day? That is the premise of Stanley Bing's wickedly funny guide to finding inner peace in the face of relentlessly obnoxious, huge and sometimes smelly bosses. Taking the concept of managing up to a new cosmic plateau, Bing urges no less than a revolution of the spirit in the American workplace: turning overwrought, oppressed, stressed-out employees into models of Zen-like powers of concentration, able to take their elephantile bosses and grey, lumbering companies and twirl them around the little finger of their consciousness. In Bing's unique tradition of social criticism cum business self-help, THROWING THE ELEPHANT presents Four Truths (or possibly Five), a Nine-fold Path, and one useful, hilarious guide to workplace sanity, success, and enlightenment that surpasses all understanding, survival.
About the Author
Stanley Bing has been a columnist at Fortune since 1995, and has written for a number of magazines and journals.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
The ways to find one's way to Enlightenment are many. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
The ways to find one's way to Enlightenment are many. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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19 reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Elephants in life
31 Mar 2002
Format:Hardcover
The elephant referred to in this title of this witty and joyfully manipulative little book is your boss, the powerful but lumbering and self-involved authority figure that Fortune columnist Stanley Bing believes is comfortably ensconced in your company's corner office. Bing begins his manual on the care and feeding of these "business elephants" with the admonition that people don't get to choose their bosses; like the weather or gravity, bosses exist as laws of nature that exceed the control of the mere mortal mosquitoes that hover about them. "Throwing the Elephant" is likely to become the kind of book that people start reading because it makes them laugh and end up giving to their friends because there's so much to learn from it. While it's a little lopsided to see the boss/employee dynamic as exclusively a power-based relationship, there's still a lot of wisdom about corporate life packed into this little book, which, like the "Dilbert" cartoons, succeeds in suggesting aspects of workplace culture that almost everyone can relate to. Now, of course, someone needs to write a book for the elephants, telling them how to deal with those pesky mosquitoes who keep buzzing around them, clamoring for attention and drinking up their lifeblood. I also highly recommend another little book of wisdom titled "Open Your Mind, Open Your Life" by Taro Gold which has helped me greatly deal with the elephants in my life!
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Thank goodness I've left the corporate world
27 Jun 2003
Format:Hardcover
I discovered this great book after starting my own business, having left my cubicle at a large wireless telecom firm only a few months prior. I wish I had read it while at that miserable job. It would have helped me to that perfect state of blissful not-caring that I tried so hard to achieve. For someone who is passionate about what they do, is professional, wants to accomplish something in life (besides kissing someone's a**), this book also helps you realize that unless you want to live in that state, maybe Corporate America isn't for you. The book also reveals exactly what is wrong with the state of corporations today--they are run by big fat egos-- that are truly overpaid, get bonuses for losing money, and don't go to jail even when they steal from their own employees. So thank you Stanley Bing for your clever insights and reinforcing my decision. Keep 'em coming.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Entertaining read with a good overall message.
29 Mar 2002
Format:Hardcover
"Throwing the Elephant" deals with the situation that the majority of us have had to face at one point or the other...just exactly what do we do with this great big elephant (read: manager) that is towering over us? Throuout the book you will find tales of the Buddha fast forwarded into the modern day in support of the ideas that the author wishes you to learn in order to deal with the elephant at hand. The topics range from how to prepare yourself for the first meeting with the elephant, keeping the elephant well fed, and even how to deal with your own inner elephant. While I do have some experience with Zen in other areas, the lessons that are given throughout the book are easily grasped regardless of any familiarity with the concepts behind Zen.
While this book is focused primarily on the elephants that you encounter in your work a day world, the information is helpful in any situation where you may encounter elephants in your life. If you are looking for a quick read that will have you laughing to yourself, while learning how to deal with elephants and still maintain a sense of calm and serenity, then this book is for you.
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