Ah, Christmas time is upon us. Are you busy thinking up Christmas gifts for your boss ? I wouldn’t…because I put myself first. I encourage you, my readers, to do the same.

I’m giving you this Christmas a Chapter from the Book of The Underdog, all free for your reading pleasure (the book consists of 30 chapters). At the same time, I lowered the price of the print book to $11.99. It’s all yours, so grab it today (I’ll end the special pricing in one week !) If you use the code GIFTBOOK18 on Amazon.com, now through Dec. 21, 2018 you get $5 OFF $20 or more of paperback books shipped and sold by Amazon !

But that’s not all.

I want you to go through this list of 10 Books that your Boss doesn’t want you to read  put together by Geoffrey James, Sales Machine writer at Inc.com. The books listed are dated, but they are still very good. Good material is valuable, it doesn’t matter if it came out in 2001 or whatever ! I have those books. You should, too. (Thank, you, Geoffrey) The links to the books are inside Geoffrey’s article.

G. James’ 10 Books Your BOSS DOESN’T WANT YOU to Read

21 Dirty Tricks at Work: How to Beat the Game of Office Politics by Mike Phipps

The Peter Principle by Laurence J. Peter

How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff

Crazy Bosses by Stanley Bing

Cubicle Warfare: 101 Office Traps and Pranks by John Austin

Poorly Made in China: An Insider’s Account of the China Production Game by Paul Midler

The Good Old Days: They Were Terrible! by Otto Bettmann

Ask the Headhunter: Reinventing the Interview to Win the Job by Nick A. Corcodilos

The Gnostic Gospels edited by Willis Barnstone

The Dilbert Principle by Scott Adams

The Book of The Underdog by Max Cantor: Chapter 21: book excerpt

21. How to Shun A Competitor

Suppose you’re competing against an individual of extreme ability who’s laden with awards; you’re not even close.

1. Paint them as freaky or weird. Use nicknames. Nicknames work because they leave a lasting impression in people’s mind. If this guy is an Olympian in rowing or swimming with a massive frame, you can start calling him Manatee. Of course, the relationship is not direct or precise, but manatee -the water mammal- suggests lazy, and overweight. Manatees are also known as sea cows.  Some of the best nicknames you get from real life behavior. If he is a martial artist, you could name him Sparrow. If she is a woman who is a runner you could call her Bops or Shuttle. Two-words pairs always work: Dumb-Dumb, Clam-Clam, Beem-Beem.
   
   
2. These are not complimenting: “Don’t fall over backwards”, “Don’t go to the hardware store for milk”, “Did you get a moon burn?” If you use those on people, you’re subtly insulting. Use them on the competition.
   
   
3. Hierarchies exist only in people’s minds. Here’s a question I was asked:

“What do I do if my coworker is getting all the accolades, all the attention. I know that he/she is not that good. (seriously?) He is popular, he is first at all [the company’s] presentations, outings, sponsorships and awards. Please help!”

I get it that someone presumably is assuming all the glory while voted low on merit. Salespeople are judged based on their numbers, researchers on their academic paper peer-recognition rankings, tech industry folks (software) are evaluated on functionability (System Integration Testing (SIT) & User Acceptance Testing (UAT), user growth, user engagement. Now you’ve got a Superman outranking you. No matter how good he is, this person will have an Achilles heel. In: (Carleson), J. C. Carleson says we should dissect our performance down to the micro-expression. The same thing you must to your competitor.

Give him a lot of test-and-try remarks and see which ones he reacts to. Perhaps you find the relationship with his significant other is on squeaky wheels.  Employ a “human vulnerability model”: Does it appear he has relationship qualms? Is his girlfriend/wife not firing on all cylinders? In the business of hedge funds, we see managers who perform poorly and underperform the market at around the same time they get divorced. That is not a coincidence. Performance is not totally dependent on markets and skill. Does your Superman coworker have any infidelity, or marital discord going at home? Even the best -the hedge funders- get off-course. You can go as far as telling your own false stories, stories with an inkling of semblance with what’s going on in Superman’s life. Chances are your sob stories will resonate with Superman. Plant the seeds of suspicion. Co-opt your target with a false story with some common roots from his own life.

Example: He is married. His wife and your telltale wife are of the same generation. Maybe they’re both artists. Then you say: you know what happened with my friend’s wife? He found her in bed with his tennis coach. You’ve opened up and shown your vulnerability to him. He’ll think long and hard about his wife if only because his wife has the same age and occupation as the telltale in your story. The human brain works by association. The mind is a computer searching for patterns. Work those patterns. Your boss may be evil, but he is still susceptible to patterns.Shun these badgers if they are your direct competitors. Make them fit into your world instead of them trying to fit you into their superlative world of Spartans.

Copyrighted work © 2018 By Max Cantor reprinted with permission.