The Personal MBA 10th Anniversary Edition

When you consider what else you can do with the $15 or so it costs to buy this book, the value proposition feels downright ridiculous. For $15 you can buy 3/5ths of a baseball cap, order a round of watered-down drinks or pick up a 1/3rd of a video game. Or, for the same price you can get over 350 pages of clearly explained, entertainingly presented, essential business concepts that will directly and meaningfully enhance your knowledge of business. If you're new to business, it will take the stark raving terror out of the process. If you're a veteran it will help you focus and enhance any venture you're working on and likely inspire more profitable ideas.One of the many stories Josh tells in the book is of a hospital that incorporates simple checklists to prevent infections from developing in patients. These checklists include basic things like reminding doctors to wash their hands. Though almost laughably simple and obvious, the mere act of incorporating the checklists lead to the complete elimination of infections at this particular hospital. The Personal MBA book is the ultimate checklist for all business decisions - as an entrepreneur, investor or even as someone running your own career and household financial system. Anyone who reads this book will have a practical guide to avoiding financial catastrophe and identifying the most promising opportunities. If I had this book a decade ago I would have saved myself from a very unfortunate business experience that cost me over $50,000 in losses and limitless wasted energy.Josh, who is stunningly still under 30 years-old, has a wisdom far beyond his years. He is fiercely intelligent and despite a very pleasant demeanor as a writer, he is a rebel in the best sense of the word. His tone is always moderate, respectful and his arguments are always meticulously researched, expertly and passionately presented. He talks softly but he carries a big intellectual stick. Make no mistake about it. The title of this book is not a gimmick. He thinks business school is a terrible investment and clearly has walked the talk, building a successful career without it. He has a gift for simply articulating complex concepts and has a deep-seated passion for analyzing systems, particularly the workings of the human brain. His tone is never cloying, condescending, egotistical or obnoxious - as so many heinous business and management book titles are. He presents his views with an inspiring confidence that will fuel your business or business-to-be. While reading it I constantly had to put the book down to jot down new ideas.Think of it this way. After absorbing what Josh calls the "mental models" in this book you will find the world of business presenting you with opportunities everywhere you go. It is a lot like buying a car and then seeing that model everywhere. As you adopt the mental models into your own thinking you will feel a shot of inspiration and be empowered to act thoughtfully, and confidently. I recently interviewed for a job and couldn't help but notice interactions that were playing out exactly as described in the book. You know that scene in The Terminator, where Arnold Schwarzenegger sees a menu of options scroll down before his eyes? And he chooses his response from that list? This book is like having a long list of useful ideas to pull from as you make decisions.The concepts articulated in The Personal MBA helped me make progress as an entrepreneur (launched a Website that made a modest profit last year), landed a job in a completely different field that I enjoy and moved to a city better suited to what I really want. I highly recommend making the Personal MBA (both the site and the book) a major part of your studies. The risk is you spend $15 and sell it for say, $8, and lose seven bucks. The potential reward is you create a business you love, earn massive profits, increase your opportunities, avoid disaster and contribute something meaningful to the world through your business. If there's a better risk/reward profile for a $15 investment, I'd love to see it. The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business

Josh Kaufman’s The Personal MBA is a comprehensive guide that distills essential business concepts into clear, actionable insights. Whether you're an entrepreneur, manager, or simply someone interested in understanding how businesses work, this book offers a wealth of knowledge without the hefty price tag of a traditional MBA.Kaufman’s writing is engaging and straightforward, making complex ideas accessible to readers at any level of business experience. The book covers a wide range of topics, including marketing, sales, negotiation, productivity, and more. What sets this book apart is its practical approach—Kaufman focuses on principles you can immediately apply to your work or business.The Personal MBA is not just a read; it's a resource you'll find yourself returning to time and again. Kaufman’s ability to synthesize key business principles into a single, easy-to-understand volume makes it an invaluable tool for anyone looking to sharpen their business acumen. Highly recommended for those who want to master the fundamentals of business on their own terms.

I was not familiar with the formal movement of "The Personal MBA", but I was curious when I saw this book advertised. I finished my MBA in 2007 and had the good fortune of having my company reimburse me for the costs. This was an experience and process I feel will serve me well. As my MBA education lasted me two years, I finished knowing I did not know everything about business and all of its core elements (I still had a lot to learn).Since I have finished I have followed the philosophy of personal learning and trying to improve key skills related to the art of business. This book is a good starting point and has some good references and passages I found interesting. I did not find the chapters on Finance, marketing, sales, or the Human Mind overly helpful (probably in this order) as they operate at the highest level and cover the most basic elements of each core competency.The areas I found most helpful were Value Creation, Value Delivery, Working with Yourself, Analyzing Systems, and Improving Systems. The last passage from B.C Forbes and Appendix B are great. Each short, but I found these to be the most thought provoking parts of the book.The reading list is good, but some really important books are missing that may help further one's "business education". Think about what you need to learn and create your own list of 100 books (some from Josh's list would certainly be included).As people have noted this will never replace the value of a formal business education, but will be a value reference for people who need business skills to complement their hard skills and don't need to go through 2-3 years of rigorous training, plus the potential expense and opportunity costs.I would have liked to see core areas like project management and quality discussed further along with IT and related subjects. Maybe tie together business and IT as the book had this potential, but fell a little short (but in truth, this was not the author's objective).All in all, the cost of the book was minimal and provided a lot of food for thought and directions to follow and explore. This may even be a recommended read for those entering business school and those who just finished.

The media could not be loaded. The Personal MBA is basically a crash course in how business actually works, without the fluff. Super practical. Some stuff I already knew, but a lot of it made me rethink how I approach work, money, and decision-making. Easy to follow and definitely worth reading if you’re into business.