Who Moved My Soap?: The CEO's Guide to Surviving Prison: The Bernie Madoff Edition (Paperback)

~ (Author) "If you're a convicted CEO who's heading to prison for the first time, let me just say this: You should be totally stoked..." (more)
Key Phrases: prison cafeteria, prison slang, nicotine gum, Six Sigma, Black Belts, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

New Yorker and NPR humorist Borowitz, author of the stock-market populism spoof The Trillionaire Next Door, sends up both corporate criminals and business literature in this rather funny book. With tongue firmly in cheek, Borowitz distills platitudes from countless business and leadership manuals and applies them to the context of the maximum security penitentiary. All the cliches are there: the leadership slogans (incarcerated CEO's should "be proactive" by starting riots instead of waiting to be made the cellblock bitch); the relentless positive thinking ("you'll emerge from your time in the joint more productive, more innovative, and millions of dollars wealthier than you were on the day the prison guard first checked you for lice"); the self-improvement schemas ("the Seven Habits of Highly Effective Prisoners"); the spurious soulfulness ("if being in prison is no longer about having fun, then what's the point?"); and the game theory buzz-concepts ("Win/Win" strategies usually lose out in prison to "Win/Die" strategies). Borowitz gives a pitch-perfect rendition of the vacuities of some business books, but given a genre in which Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun was a bestseller, his smart little book hardly seems like a parody.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

There was no mistaking who he was: the silver hair, those beady eyes, that sheepish expression that makes him look like a guilty hamster. "Hello," he said. "I'm Bernie Madoff, and I'm about to offer you the investment opportunity of a lifetime." I cringed. Madoff had been in prison for less than an hour and he had already made the classic rookie's mistake: never set up a Ponzi scheme during your first week.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (May 27, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743251423
• ISBN-13: 978-0743251426
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #406,435 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect Beach Read, June 29, 2003

By A Customer

I first encountered Andy Borowitz's wicked satirical wit on NPR, and then more recently have been enjoying his brilliant one-liners on CNN. Then I got hooked on his Borowitz Report column after reading a glowing front page story about him in The Wall Street Journal. If you've never read Borowitz, Who Moved My Soap? is the perfect place to start. It's a hysterically funny take on the recent spate of corporate scandals, but it's more than that: it contains Borowitz's totally original, totally side-splitting riffs on pop culture, celebrities, politics, and even the Zagat guide and feng shui. The chapters are punchy and short, so it's the ideal funny book to read in little bits during a day at the beach. And it stays with you -- I read it days ago and I'm still quoting jokes to friends.

One warning, though. While Who Moved My Soap? is the perfect beach read, if you read it on the beach you're bound to get strange looks from those around you as you find yourself laughing uncontrollably. That's what happened to me on the beach in Rhode Island, and people kept coming over to ask me what was so funny. The next day, I spotted four more people reading Who Moved My Soap? Mark my words, it's the book of the summer.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SLICK, HILAROUS CORPORATE SATIRE, April 2, 2004

By	Shashank Tripathi (Gadabout) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Modern corporate world is a sty reeking of corporate scandals. This, despite a whole deluge of corporate "gurus" and biz books dispensing truckloads of advice on how to better run your company, manage your time, manage your employees, etc etc.

Trust Andy Borowitz to rip the vacuity of almost 90% of such advisory tripe to shreds. He hammers home the drudgery of business cliches in an absolutely hilariously anti-establishment satire. It's an easy to read compilation, you could devour it in a couple of hours if you wish (and you mostly likely will).

The title itself is a funny play on "Who moved my cheese", a monumentally boring bestseller from a few years ago about change management. As one of the reviews suggests, change is something a lot of disillusioned CEOs like Martha Stewart have to cope with in their newfound abodes.

Pick up this gem for some pure, unadulterated, and occasionally even laught-out-loud humor. Pronto purchase material!

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Someone Give a Copy to Martha!, January 29, 2004

By	sseale (New York) - See all my reviews

This book is just hilarious! Borowitz hits the nail on the head with some of his "tips" for CEOs headed for prison. The funniest chapter was The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Prisoners. It just kept me rolling. If you're tired of CEOs' antics, pick this book up, it's totally worth it.