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 Even the elite schools like Harvard and Wharton offer outdated, assembly-line programs that teach you more about PowerPoint presentations and unnecessary financial models than what it takes to run a real business.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

Can't get self-entitilement of the first chapter

What did you like best about The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business? What did you like least?

I'm a very open minded person, but also a very busy person. Time is important; life is short. I just spent 20 minutes listening to the author talk in a clipped voice about why he's qualified to write this book, why he's an outlier, why he's special, why one career experience with one employer gives him credo, etc. Ok, so maybe there are many other career experiences or insights to follow but I honestly can't deal with the ego trip and can only ask the author to please get outside of himself if he wants to connect with people (or settle in for a few years and see what life is like, then write from a sincere place). I'm giving some rating as there are likely good things to follow as promised by author. Yet I can't quite get past this point on audio. Perhaps a hard copy to flip through is the best format for this book.

The ESSENTIALS for business

I've read a few books, and listened to multiple books on the subject on business but none other were as concrete as this book was. I'm not in business/finance/sales but I enjoy learning many different things just to improve my daily life in the long term. This book has everything that is needed to be successful in the world of business/marketing/sales, and every topic that is gone over is explained in full detail on how to go about it. You don't need to come from a business background to be successful in sales, you don't need to go to school for business to make it in the world of sales. If you can apply these skills to any market that deals with monetary value you'll be able to improve your life one sale at a time. I would highly recommend this book for anyone interested in making a step towards a rewarding life. If you want it, why do you want it?

Great broad content.

Josh did a great job at providing a very broad overview of many concepts and topics that are crucial to being successful in business and in life. Coupled with many references to sources I found this an extremely valuable audiobook.

Manic Buffet

If you feel the need to change your life, start here...
I dont have a lot of business experience, or rather, I havnt given myself the opportunity to recognize any of my business experiences.
This novel has helped me tremendously in recognizing my potential, as well as create a strategical business plan. I cant say for certainty that I will be the next billionaire on the block, but I also cant say to the contrary.
I know alot of successful people, and many of them employ the business principles in this book. Not many of them are familiar with all of the principles, which made me realize this is what separates many SBO's from Large Corporations.
Listen to this book, then like me you will purchase the paperback so you can have it as your holy grail to sip from before, during, and after each day of continued learning.

A Great Collection of Information

I really enjoyed this book. The author provided a great collection of resources and he also explained topics concisely. I suggest you take notes or get the physical copy so you can quickly reference a section.

A lot of info in a small package

Loved the book, lots of stuff to digest. The format itself doesnt lend itself that easily to an audio format though as the chapters have a lot of subchapters about sometimes really different concepts. would probably recommend to buy a physical copy for reference material afterwards

Over my expectations

This book helped me understand better my own business and posible common errors I was falling into. Recommended for every entrepreneur.

This is not just a personal MBA

I will preface by saying I didn't finish this book. I enjoyed learning a more compact set of rules for starting a business, but the last third of this book focuses on things unrelated to the actual components of running a business. I have read or heard of most of the principles he covers in the last third and was not looking to listen to another few hours of those same principles; I started reading this book to learn more about business and the things I may not know about running one (finances, legal, etc.) since I will not be paying for business school.

This is not to say that others will not enjoy this book. The information is valuable if you haven't heard it before, just don't expect the entirety of this book to only be about business operations.

Great resource for us new to business

This is a great book for people who do not have a deep background in business. I am an educator, and I am looking into starting my own private school, and this book proved incredibly useful to me. I was able to learn all the basics I need to have the confidence to start my own business.
My only complaint is that every once a while, there would be repeated lines.

Inspiring thoughts

This book was so inspiring and made me think about all the things I do in life the way I do them. I definitely recommend this to anyone wants to be inspired and have their own business.