In the formative years of my managerial career, I ate books to facilate growth. It became a habit. Later, I would pick up books from airports or lists from New York Times or Wall Street Journal. For years, managerial books are the only non-fiction I read.
Two books, I tried to memorize them: I-Jing and SunTzu.
I-Jing, in its entirety, has less than 7,000 words. SunTzu is just a bit longer, less than 8,000 words. Both can be printed on 8 pages of letter-size, in succinct Chinese, of course. English is voluminous.
I-Jing explains life with 64 cases. When I have a moment to reflect my life, I pick a random case and frequently fell into a trance thinking the relavance to whatever happening to myself at the time.
SunTzu offers 13 strategic considerations on how to win a war, any war. To me, these two books form the foundation of life. I-Jing gives me insight on goals and SunTzu offers the strategies to obtain them. I read many on similar topics, none topped these two. Both books were written thousands years ago and are part of the Chinese heritageous wisdom. The translation works are all painful to read, and, again, so voluminous.
Thank you, Darrin, for the classically bound copy and the humourous Stanley Bing version.
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