The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business

By: Josh Kaufman

Narrated by: Josh Kaufman

Length: 15 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

Audie Award Nominee, Business and Educational, 2013

Getting an MBA is an expensive choice - one almost impossible to justify regardless of the state of the economy. Even the elite schools like Harvard and Wharton offer outdated, assembly-line programs that teach you more about PowerPoint presentations and unnecessary financial models than what it takes to run a real business. You can get better results (and save hundreds of thousands of dollars) by skipping business school altogether....

Josh Kaufman founded PersonalMBA.com as an alternative to the business school boondoggle. His blog has introduced hundreds of thousands of readers to the best business books and most powerful business concepts of all time. Now, he shares the essentials of entrepreneurship, marketing, sales, negotiation, operations, productivity, systems design, and much more, in one comprehensive volume.

The Personal MBA distills the most valuable business lessons into simple, memorable mental models that can be applied to real-world challenges.

True leaders aren't made by business schools - they make themselves, seeking out the knowledge, skills, and experience they need to succeed. Read this book and you will learn the principles it takes most business professionals a lifetime of trial and error to master.

©2010, 2012 Worldly Wisdom Ventures LLC (P)2012 Worldly Wisdom Ventures LLC

Good info, but not especially suited to audio

Where does The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I'd say it's in the low-middle. The author narrates and thus well understands his material. On the other hand, he's no voice actor and that costs him. I think Josh might have done a bit better to have practiced on some other materials for a few months to develop this skill. Voice acting is at least as hard as stage acting and much harder than routine public speaking or film/TV acting (because all you have to work with is your voice). The mistaken notion that it's as easy as reading your children a bedtime story is soundly disproven here. What confuses me is that ACX kind of showcases Josh as an author-narrator success story.

What did you like best about this story?

I love the content. There are so many ideas that I can't choose one.

What three words best describe Josh Kaufman’s voice?

Sincere, idiosyncratic, unpolished

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No way. The delivery is encyclopedic and unsuited to my normal audiobook context: driving. It's more for sleepy time or perhaps quick, tip-of-the-day type listening at my desk.

Any additional comments?

Josh has the capacity to do this well--even professionally. I'd suggest he make an effort to do more acting work as well as radio interviews, podcasting, etc.. He also needs coaching from a spoken word accent and voice coach. I did such work in Korea, and I know firsthand how it can dramatically improve anyone's ability to speak with poise, engagement and polish.

Good refresher or starting point

If you're thinking about getting an MBA definitely read this first so you understand the cost benefit analysis. The book includes a high level over view of many of the topics you'll learn about in grad school and includes resources for further studying. it is not a stand in for school or for learning more of a guide to get you started on the many diverse topics.

One of the best books on business!

I really enjoyed the book and it's format. Very useful content, up to the point, simple examples. Make's it easy to listen to. Great job!

Great content terrible music

The content of the book is great.
My only complaint is the cheesy music at the end of each segment and chapter.
Sounds terrible and probably adds an additional hour to the listening time.

the new narrator is not nearly as good as Kaufman

the narrator was updated and this is now terrible to listen to and hard to retain information!! narrator is monotone and doesn't use enough emphasis and pauses, which is necessary when learning a textbook on audible form. music between chapters is so cheesy. terrible choice audible. this book is now terrible to listen to you won't retain any info, purchase hard copy instead

Unable to down load

Unable to down load the full book. Only a 1/10 th down loaded
Please help

great book for anyone

I found this book extremely useful. I am in an MBA program now and this book really explains complex subjects simply. I really enjoyed how it was broken into short segments.

Many Topics Touched

The Personal MBA is like a handbook of all the different business aspects. Some topics you may already know, but the author does diversify enough to keep engagement throughout. I liked it, wouldn’t mind re-listening to it in the future.

good book, practical advice

good tips, don't listen all the way through, look for a chapter you are interested in and listen to that, otherwise it can be too overwhelming

Excellent book!

It's a must if you are working on your personal growth and/or starting a business. It provides a lot of guidance if you already have a business too.