This book was the first management book I’ve bought.
I still remember it was my birthday. I took leave. I walked into IOI Mall’s Popular bookstore, saw this funny looking book – Sun Tzu Was a Sissy: Conquer Your Enemies, Promote Your Friends, and Wage the Real Art of War by Stanley Bing. Back then I didn’t even know who is Sun Tzu, nor I knew who was Stanley Bing. I just found the cover funny with a warrior holding a pink flower, wearing a pink Tutu authored by Bing who reminded me of Friend’s Chandler Bing.
I spent the whole afternoon in a Japanese restaurant reading the book while chowing down sushi & green tea. Like how the cover attracted me, it was a funny book. This is a sample excerpt from the book:
Train the people. Discipline them. They will submit. -Sun Tzu-
You want loyalty? Get a dog. -My boss-
And that is the tone of the book. Sarcastic but painfully true at the same time. The book also makes fun of HR – a lot. Like most satires, we have to read this with care. For it can give us ‘ideas’. In the book there is also a lot of charts and graphs to demonstrate his points like this:
Well, there are some truth in it for some of us, I am sure. Especially men (runssssss).
Anyways, the more I read on how he criticized Sun Tzu, the more intrigued I got with this character. Who is this Sun Tzu actually? Jeng, jeng, jeng… lessons to be continued…
Bimbo
