So Get This

My boss keeps telling me that I need to read Machiavelli. Specifi-
cally, The Prince - which is basically a how-to manual on how to
govern (in a very diabolical and twisted way) written by Machia-
velli in the 1500's and probably based on one of the Borgias (an
infamous and corrupt ruling family in that same time period).
(Hey, we're in sales - what can you expect)

Due to this treatment written by Machiavelli, as many of you al-
ready know, I'm sure, when someone is very devious and goes
about getting what they want in a very deviant and underhanded
but successful way, they are frequently called Machiavellian. So
anyway, this has long been a request and topic of conversation as
apparently some of the administration really admire the tactics in
The Prince. I've always pretended like I don't know what they're
talking about, but hello? I was a writing minor and a psych major
so,

Funnily enough, I HAVE read The Prince. In college no less. I final-
ly emailed my boss and said, umm... by the way, Machiavelli never
believed what he wrote in The Prince. In fact, Machiavelli was never
Machiavellian. He wrote The Prince in an attempt (which backfired)
to flatter the Medicis and get them to put him back into political of-
fice. They were not amused to be seen as so cruel and the entire
plan backfired on him. He never did regain political office. His real
works can be seen in in Discourses on Livy. I also reminded him that
the Borgias, upon at least one of whom The Prince was thought to
have been modeled, never DID come to a very good end...

Anyway, both of these two are interesting reading if you are at all
interested in this sort of thing. And... There you have it.