The Personal MBA 10th Anniversary Edition

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A quick rundown of this product’s key features:

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.

Our Top Reviews

Reviewer: Kindle Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Top ten books in my life
Review: This book has been essential in my business training and helped me learn how to use my own brain effectively.

Reviewer: Daniel Joshua Rubin
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Brilliant, Essential, Rebellious
Review: 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

Reviewer: EG
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Master of Business Awareness
Review: Of the many reviews I have written here, writing a review for this text was among the most difficult because “The Personal MBA” has a large target market consisting of a wide variety of potential readers, and the vast majority of reviews here are very positive. Because of this situation, I fall back on my review philosophy, which is to write as objectively as possible, taking into account the claims of the author in terms of their goals, as well as comparing to other materials in the marketplace. What is not necessarily fair is to write solely based on my knowledge or experience, which often times does not match the backgrounds of the target audience.Admittedly, this text is very well written. The writing style and organization of Kaufman contributes greatly to readability, and I enjoyed this aspect of this book. Many business works have a lot of fluff, and in general most of this text provides substance that will be appreciated by many readers. In addition, the history behind this book is interesting in that it came about as a natural step after the author created a heavily visited blog listing books and resources he had found valuable in his studies, so readers can be assured that this text was not written from an ivory tower perspective but resulted directly from reader interest.The author writes at length in his first chapter as to why this book should be read. It is not easy summarizing this chapter in a few short sentences, but Kaufman mentions that what he provides here is “a set of foundational business concepts that you can use to get things done. Reading this book will give you a firm foundation of business knowledge you can use to make things happen. Once you master the fundamentals, you can accomplish even the most challenging business goals with surprising ease.” Later, the author calls this text “a self-directed crash course in business”, and provides an extensive discourse as to why the traditional MBA does not provide significant value.Neither the author nor myself has an MBA, although we have both gone to business school (and I also have a graduate degree). While I cannot speak for the author, in my opinion there is substantial material in this text to provide to the business neophyte. However, I was unfortunately not overly impressed with the material Kaufman provides after chapter 6, which is midway through the book. The author makes up on this aspect to some extent by providing an appendix entitled “How to Continue Your Business Studies” that lists dozens of texts in a variety of business topics, although this list serves as a reminder that, as communicated in the introduction, what the author provides here is an introductory text.If you do not have time to read this whole text, I recommend reading chapter 2, entitled “Value Creation” on creating value for customers. The summary that the author provides on the “Twelve Standard Forms of Value” (product, service, shared resource, subscription, resale, lease, agency, audience aggregation, loan, option, insurance, capital), for example, is very well done. The “Ten Ways to Evaluate a Market” is also especially well done. The author obviously summarizes and synthesizes material from disparate sources very well, but the reader needs to be aware that much of the content provided is just that, a CliffsNotes-styled survey of what the author has determined is fundamental to studying business.From the perspective of a consultant, be aware however that this material is sometimes overly summarized and synthesized. For example, in his 3-chapter presentation on understanding systems, analyzing systems, and improving systems, many important topics are glossed over, and unless the reader understands the substance that is waiting for them within the reading lists the author provides, they may minimize the importance or complexity of the topics. For example, the definition that the author provides for “Return on Investment (ROI)” is limited to “simply dividing the amount of money you collect by the amount of money you spent, then subtracting by 1.00.”However, there would be no need for texts such as “The Consultant’s Scorecard: Tracking Results and Bottom-Line Impact of Consulting Projects”, by Jack Phillips (see my review), where several ROI calculations are detailed at length, if this calculation were so simple. Fortunately, Kaufman points the reader in the right direction, and presents in an entertaining manner, and so this book is recommended to anyone new to business topics, especially aspiring entrepreneurs. One of the best features of this text are the many quotes from other sources that introduce each of the subtopics in the 12 chapters provided here, and for this reason alone this book is worth a read.

Reviewer: Sam
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great Read
Review: In depth, yet still succinct. Great great overview of the fundamental systems involved in business and how to best understand and excel in these interdependent areas.

Reviewer: Claire Hopper
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Absolute Business Goldmine
Review: I’ve had this book for 4 days and I can already tell I will need to use two highlighters throughout the duration of my reading. I cannot overstate how VITAL this book is if you are an entrepreneur and want to find out the steps to launch your business for success. The tone of this book is informative and encouraging, yet realistic to the core. It will tell you how to fail and how to succeed, so choose your hard. I have never read so much value in a condensed amount of time for only $15. But this book if you’re ready to change your life and are ready to propel yourself into entrepreneurship. This book is the Master Plan Blueprint to success but ONLY if you follow the steps. Deviate at your own risk.

Reviewer: Samuel A Mays
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: great information easy to read
Review: Awesome book. Tons of great information in a very consumable way. Will buy the physical copy to re-read and take notes.

Reviewer: Patricia Ramírez
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Es un indispensable como consulta

Reviewer: Rumbidzai Mukumba
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Love bed this book

Reviewer: “andrewwoods_uk”
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Mostly about business but also about so much more. Insightful and clear breakdowns of how businesses operate, make money (or not) and a wise analysis on company culture self development and managing complex systems. Thoroughly enjoyable – I can see myself reading it again.

Reviewer: Deniz
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: In der “The Personal MBA 10th Anniversary Edition” entführt uns Josh Kaufman in die Welt des Business, ohne dass wir die Schulbank drücken müssen. Dieses Buch ist eine fesselnde Ressource für jeden, der die Grundlagen des Geschäftslebens verstehen und meistern möchte.Kaufman präsentiert einen umfassenden Überblick über die Schlüsselelemente des Geschäfts, angefangen von Marketing über Finanzen bis hin zu Führung und Entscheidungsfindung. Der Autor vermittelt komplexe Konzepte auf eine zugängliche und praxisnahe Weise, ohne dabei auf wichtige Details zu verzichten.Die 10th Anniversary Edition bietet nicht nur bewährte Ratschläge aus dem Original, sondern auch aktualisierte Inhalte, um den Lesern relevante Einblicke in die sich ständig verändernde Geschäftswelt zu bieten. Die klare Struktur des Buches und die prägnante Sprache machen es zu einem idealen Begleiter für Selbststudium und Nachschlagen.Ein Highlight des Buches ist die Betonung der praktischen Anwendung von Wissen. Kaufman fördert nicht nur das Verständnis von Konzepten, sondern ermutigt die Leser auch, ihre Kenntnisse durch konkrete Handlungen zu festigen. Die zahlreichen Fallstudien und Beispiele aus der realen Welt unterstreichen die Anwendbarkeit der vermittelten Prinzipien.Egal, ob Sie ein aufstrebender Unternehmer sind oder einfach nur Ihr Geschäftsverständnis vertiefen möchten, “The Personal MBA” ist eine unschätzbare Ressource. Diese Jubiläumsausgabe festigt Kaufmans Ruf als Lehrmeister des praktischen Geschäfts und ist ein unverzichtbarer Begleiter für alle, die die Kunst des Business meistern wollen.

Reviewer: Dom
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This book is easy to understand. It offers a decent amount of basic knowledge when it comes to starting a business. I love how it not only covers the author’s experience and his advice but also other aspects (team working, mental health) that contributes to creating a great business. Would recommend to anyone who are interested in starting their own business but don’t know where to start. This book is good for people that are not interesting in starting business at the same time imo as it covers ideas that are beneficial to personal development

Price effective as of Mar 10, 2025 00:47:25 UTC

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