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 Even the elite schools like Harvard and Wharton offer outdated, assembly-line programs that teach you more about PowerPoint presentations and unnecessary financial models than what it takes to run a real business.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

Great book, easy to follow

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

No 1 so far

What other book might you compare The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business to and why?

The millionaire mba

Which scene was your favorite?

I kind of like it all

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made me feel like I am being made ready and learning fast

Any additional comments?

Thanks to the Author

Great audio book

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

I give it a ten all the way. I thought the audiobook was interesting and had valuable information.

Practical

Good practical business advice, liked the portion on standard operating procedures and check lists. Will listen to it a second time and set several book marks the first time.

Awesome

What made the experience of listening to The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business the most enjoyable?

A great listen with real world information and applicable ideas/thoughts. Ill need to listen to it again :)

expect only non-MBA startup Business Skills

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Don't expect to learn MBA - corporate Business Skills or help with application here. I'd title it 'self help motivation books along with some very alternative basic startup dictionary style intros'. This knowledge can't help you in a real MBA.
MBA should be a protected word, as it sets high expectations.

I don't think that it's a bad motivation style book, but any hope of a good MBA skill learning got badly disappointed

What other book might you compare The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business to and why?

Dale Carnegie

Like Commuting With A Personable Genius

If you could sum up The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business in three words, what would they be?

Simplicity, Realism, Focus

What did you like best about this story?

Josh Kaufman breaks down the essentials of business without getting too caught up in the 'weeds (I'm talking about you, 3" thick macroeconomics textbooks!).' I've thoroughly enjoyed this book, plan to repeat chapters (or the entire book) a few times, and will eventually turn to other books he recommends for in-depth knowledge of certain business concepts. I'm pre-ordering "The First 20 Hours" and look forward to yet-another fantastic publication from Josh Kaufman.

Excellent overview of business

Excellent book! It's educational and very content dense. I learned a lot about business topics, and he refers you to other books if you want to learn more about a particular topics such as marketing or business psychology.

Good overview, but not much new

As someone who has read a lot of manamgement books and worked in corporations this did not provide many new insights, but it is a very good summary of everything a person should know when starting or managing a small business.

Breaks conventional thinking

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

I loved how he explained the worth of an MBA in these days and it can be made for by reading and learning as you go. I believe in hard work and I believe that the core focus of this book was not to rely on a piece of paper you will pay a lot of money for to bring you happiness.

Good overview

I found this book to be enjoyable and cover a large gamut of relevant information. I especially liked the middle chapters which discussed human psychology which is useful for trying to sell.

The benefit of having a condensed reference guide such as this is that you only get to scratch the surface in-terms of content. Also, I reject the notion that this summarizes an MBA program. No single book can capture two years of case-study, problem solving, networking and business simulations - not even close.

I took a few key ideas / phrases with me that I will apply on some clients - that's about it - but I still consider it a good overview of many key business / selling concepts. Also - the author references many sources of information that the reader can seek additional background information.