The Personal MBA 10th Anniversary Edition

Description

The 10th anniversary edition of the bestselling foundational business training manual for ambitious readers, featuring new concepts and mental models: updated, expanded, and revised.

Many people assume they need to attend business school to learn how to build a successful business or advance in their career. That’s not true. The vast majority of modern business practice requires little more than common sense, simple arithmetic, and knowledge of a few very important ideas and principles.

The Personal MBA 10th Anniversary Edition provides a clear overview of the essentials of every major business topic: entrepreneurship, product development, marketing, sales, negotiation, accounting, finance, productivity, communication, psychology, leadership, systems design, analysis, and operations management…all in one comprehensive volume.

Inside you’ll learn concepts such as:

The 5 Parts of Every Business: You can understand and improve any business, large or small, by focusing on five fundamental topics.

The 12 Forms of Value: Products and services are only two of the twelve ways you can create value for your customers.

4 Methods to Increase Revenue: There are only four ways for a business to bring in more money. Do you know what they are?

Business degrees are often a poor investment, but business skills are always useful, no matter how you acquire them.

The Personal MBA will help you do great work, make good decisions, and take full advantage of your skills, abilities, and available opportunities–no matter what you do (or would like to do) for a living.“A goldmine of useful ideas and helpful explanations. Every entrepreneur should own a copy.”
—James Clear, bestselling author, Atomic Habits

“Josh has done more for my business education than my MBA. The Personal MBA walks you through the mental models you need to excel in business. A lifetime of business knowledge in one volume.”
—Shane Parrish, founder of Farnam Street (fs.blog) and host of The Knowledge Project podcast

“The Personal MBA is the single best business book I’ve read. Most books focus on a single part of business in isolation, but The Personal MBA walks you through every moving part, and gives you the tools to understand how those parts work together to create a complete system.”
—Amy Hoy, founder of Noko and Stacking the Bricks 

“The only business book I recommend. Josh somehow condenses an entire library of crucial knowledge into a short book that’s eminently readable, so you can spend less time reading and more time building your business. It’s perfect for both providing an overview and serving as a reference. I revisit The Personal MBA more than any other book on my shelf.”
—Courtland Allen, co-founder of Indiehackers.com

“I read The Personal MBA cover to cover when it was first released and it had a major impact on how I view business. It’s incredible how Josh was able to distill hundreds of books and hundreds of years of business knowledge into this succinct and elegant tome.”
—Rob Walling, co-founder of MicroConf and bestselling author, Start Small, Stay Small

“10 years ago, I got an MBA education courtesy of Kaufman’s book. His practical business insights and mindset techniques haven’t let me down since. The Personal MBA is the most distilled, most accelerated MBA on the planet: all of the insights, none of the ego.”
—Joanna Wiebe, founder of Copyhackers

“My well-worn copy of The Personal MBA has been sitting within arm’s reach by my desk for the better part of the past decade. Since starting and growing my own business, this book has been my go-to manual for insights, clarity, and wisdom that I never learned in school.”
—Shawn Blanc, founder of The Sweet Setup and The Focus Course 

“Ten years after reading The Personal MBA, I still refer to it often and use it to make better decisions. Whether it’s building a business plan to launch my writing studio, planning my day, or taking a systematic approach to identify and solve problems, I can’t think of any other book that’s had such a positive impact on my overall productivity and enjoyment of life.”
—Daniel Joshua Rubin, playwright and author, 27 Essential Principles of Story

“The Personal MBA should be required reading for anyone in business. This book exposed me to ideas, systems, and best practices that I had never been taught anywhere else. Even after ten years, I still reference it on a regular basis. Buy it, read it, then keep it close. It’ll be your constant business companion for years to come.”
—Tim Grahl, author, Running Down a Dream and founder of BookLaunch

“A masterpiece. This is the ‘START HERE’ book I recommend to everyone interested in business. An amazing overview of everything you need to know. Covers all of the basics, minus buzz-words and fluff. One of the most inspiring things I’ve read in years.” 
—Derek Sivers, bestselling author, Anything You Want

“No matter what they tell you, an MBA is not essential. If you combine reading this book with actually trying stuff, you’ll be far ahead in the business game.”
—Kevin Kelly, founding executive editor of Wired and bestselling author, The Inevitable

“File this book under NO EXCUSES. After you’ve read it, you won’t be open to people telling you that you’re not smart enough, not insightful enough, or not learned enough to do work that matters. Josh takes you on a worthwhile tour of the key ideas in business.”
—Seth Godin, bestselling author, This Is Marketing

“I’ve run across few people who conceptually ‘grok’ how to get things done better than Josh Kaufman.”
—David Allen, bestselling author, Getting Things Done

“I graduated with an MBA in 2005 before I encountered The Personal MBA, but I still felt like I didn’t know anything about business. In retrospect, I wish I had read this book before enrolling in an MBA program—it would’ve helped me be more mindful while completing my degree. Who knows . . . I might have skipped the MBA completely. This is easily the best foundational business book available.”
—Roger Hui, Technical Account Manager, RedHat, Inc.

“I used the mental models in this book to create a profitable business in less than four weeks. Josh quickly dispels many mistaken beliefs about entrepreneurship, and his guidance has made me vastly more productive and successful, and my life more fulfilling.”                                             
—Evan Deaubl, President and CEO, Tic Tac Code, LLCJosh Kaufman helps people make more money, get more done, and have more fun. His first book, The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business, is an international bestseller. He lives in Colorado.

Introduction: Why Read This Book?

“Just what the world needs—another business book!”
—US Customs Agent at John F. Kennedy International Airport, After Asking About My Occupation

“Life’s tough. It’s tougher if you’re stupid.”
—John Wayne, Western Film Icon

Since you’re reading this book, chances are you want to make something important happen: you want to start a business, get a promotion, or create something new in the world. It’s also likely that one or more things are holding you back from achieving your dream:

►   Business  angst—the  feeling  that  you  “don’t  know  much  about business” and therefore could never start your own company or take more responsibility in your current position. Better to maintain the status quo than face your fear of the unknown.
►   Certification intimidation—the idea that “business is complicated” and is a subject best left to trained “experts.” If you don’t have an MBA or similar expensive credentials, who are you to say you know what to do?
►   Impostor syndrome—the fear that you’re already “in over your head” and it’s only a matter of time before you’re unmasked as a total fraud. No one likes a phony, right?

Here’s the good news: everyone has these unfounded fears, and they’re normal. Don’t let them hold you back from pursuing what’s important to you. Businesses are created, operated, and improved by ordinary people just like you; there’s no magic or secret knowledge involved. All you need to do is learn a few simple concepts that will change the way you think about how businesses work and allow you to identify promising opportuni- ties.

If you’re an entrepreneur, student, tradesperson, executive, or professional who wants to master the fundamentals of sound business practice, this book is for you. No matter who you are or what you’re trying to do, you’re about to discover a useful new way of looking at business that will help you spend less time fighting your fears and more time doing things that make a difference.
 
You Don’t Need to Know It All

“As to methods, there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.”
  —Harrington Emerson, Management Consultant and Efficiency Expert
 
One of the most important things about learning any subject is the fact that you don’t need to know everything—you need to understand a small set of important concepts that provide most of the value. Once you have a solid scaffold of core principles to work from, building upon your knowledge and making progress becomes much easier.

The Personal MBA is a set of foundational business concepts you can use to get things done. Understanding these fundamental principles will give you a set of tools you can rely on to make good decisions. If you invest the time and energy necessary to learn these concepts, you’ll be in the top 1 percent of the human population when it comes to knowing

►   How businesses actually work
►   How to start a new business                   
►   How to improve an existing business
►   How to use business-related skills to accomplish your personal goals.

Think of this book as a filter. Instead of trying to absorb all of the business information that’s out there—and there’s a lot out there—use this book to help you learn what matters most, so you can focus on what’s important: making things happen.

No Experience Necessary

“People always overestimate how complex business is. This isn’t rocket science—we’ve chosen one of the world’s most simple professions.”

—Jack Welch, Former CRO of General Electric  
Don’t worry if you’re a complete beginner. Unlike many other business books, this book does not require any prior business knowledge or experience. I don’t assume you’re the CEO of a large company who makes multimillion-dollar decisions on a daily basis—but this book will still be useful if you are.

If you do have business experience, take it from many of my clients and readers from around the world who have MBAs from top schools—you’ll find the information in this book more valuable and practical than any- thing you learned earning your degree.
Together, we’ll explore 271 simple concepts that will help you think about business in a new and useful way. After reading this book, you’ll have a more comprehensive and accurate understanding of what businesses actually are and what successful businesses actually do.
 
Questions, Not Answers        

“Education is not the answer to the question. Education is the means to the answer to all questions.”
—Bill Allin, Sociologist and Education Activist

Most business books attempt to teach you to have more answers: a technique for this, a method for that. This book is different. It won’t give you answers—it  will help you ask better questions. Knowing what’s important in every business is the first step in making good business decisions. The more you know about the essential questions to ask in your current situation, the faster you’ll be able to find the answers you need to move forward.

US

Additional information

Dimensions	1.0100 × 5.4900 × 8.4500 in
Imprint	Portfolio
ISBN-13	09780525543022
ISBN-10	0525543023
Author	Josh Kaufman
Audience	General / adult
BISAC	BUS043000, BUS025000
Subjects	how to start a business, self development books, self improvement books, negotiation, management books, finance books, financial books, success books, marketing books, MBA, top 10 business books, mba book, business adventures, personal mba, marketing book, product management, mba programs, finance mba, finance, business plan, business management, management, business book, business, graduation, BUS043000, leadership, marketing, best business books, graduation gifts, personal finance, business marketing, BUS025000, entrepreneurship, business books