Thick Face,
Black Heart: The Warrior Philosophy for Conquering the Challenges of Business
and Life
by Chin-Ning Chu
Completed January 2002
Thick Face, Black Heart is an erratic work. Chu has a
unique, anecdotal style. She seems to be trying to write maxims – short little
statements that are packed with meaning, in the style of some of the historic
Chinese works like Sun Tzu’s Art of War. I didn’t think much of her
attempts to create new maxims, but her translation of excerpts from Kung Ming’s
Art of War and Lee Zhong Wu’s Thick Black Theory (Chu’s inspiration
for this book) are very interesting.
Chu’s attempts at
maxim-making cover the first 80% of the book and while some are interesting and
worthwhile (“ Don’t give your fear too much importance. An ignored guest often
departs unannounced,” pp. 57-58), most struck me as very anecdotal. In other
words, she cites a personal experience and then articulates a maxim based on
that. The problem is, that anecdotes aren’t a very reliable guide in
maxim-making. This is particularly noticeable in a couple areas where Chu
creates maxims that are fairly contradictory – like where she says that you
should never do favors for people without “negotiating” a fair compensation,
and then several chapters later says that what goes around comes around and if
you’re a good person and do favors for folks, in the end it will accrue to your
benefit.
The most interesting and
worthwhile part of the book, though, starts on page 279 – I’d skip straight to
it. There, Chu begins excerpting some classic Chinese works that haven’t been
widely translated or excerpted. The first is Kung Ming’s Art of War,
which contains such gems as:
-
The
types of “wicked” people in organizations (p. 281)
-
Methods
to recognize the individuals true character (containing gems like, “Cause him
to be drunk, then observe his real nature” and “Make him handle money, then
know his virtue.”) (p. 282)
-
The
nine essential abilities of a leader (pp. 285-286)
-
The
five assets and eight liabilities of a leader (A sample asset: “He is faithful
and loyal to his friends;” and a sample liability: “He does not, or is unable
to, recommend deserving individuals for appropriate promotion.”) (pp. 287-288)
-
The
omens of victory and defeat (pp. 291-292)
Similarly, Chu’s
translation and excerpting of Lee Zhong Wu’s Thick Black Theory is very
good.
Finally, Chu is a master
at selecting quotations from great leaders, authors and religious works. Each
section of each chapter has one, and most are very appropriate and insightful.
One of my favorites: “I am able to love my God because He gives me freedom to
deny Him,” from Rabindranath Tagore.
So, if you’re looking for
every word to be useful and true, skip this one…but if you’re looking for
really powerful insights and don’t mind that they are hidden among a lot of self-indulgent
anecdotes, Thick Face, Black Heart is definitely worth wading through.