The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business

This book provides good insight into how one can better their business education without going into lots of debt to get a MBA. It also has lots of sound business knowledge/concepts that can help you grow and learn. Yes, you won't get a certificate even if you finish all the books on the reading list (currently it's at 99) but you'll be more educated so this is something each of us has to consider. I enjoy the flexibility of reading at my own pace and not taking on more student loans. For me, it's about further educating myself and prior to learning about 'The Personal MBA' program I had no direction of what to read. This program is like a filter to the millions of books out there and helps me decide what to read for each business topic. Even if you do decide to enroll in a traditional MBA program, reading the books on this list will only help increase your business knowledge.

Still reading but the information Josh lays out in this book is indespensible. I've learned so much in only four chapters thus far. I'm excited to understand the information to come.

This book also goes into detail about how to approach potential customers and clients with your products or services. I think I'll refer to this book for years to come as I grow my small business.

great book to keep on the shelves.

This is a fantastic book, and I recommend everyone read it. Even if you aren't interested in business its a good idea to at least know how and why they operate so you can make a more determined judgment in your interactions with them or when you work for them. But for budding entrepreneurs this book is a must have...

Kind of boring but it covers everything. How do business schools teach? Using books. The basic premise is that books are the backbone of an education. So the more books you read, the smarter you are. Take Elon Musk for example. His advice is if you want to know about something, read all the books about that subject. This is how he learned about rocket science to go on to start the company SpaceX.

Value of this book is incredible. It condenses all concepts necessary to fully understand how businesses work as well as how you and your mind fit into the whole puzzle. Instead of spending a valuable time reading books about different topics you can just skip most of them and find pretty much everything what you need in this book.

As a young entrepreneur, it's hard to find material that actual makes sense and will help you and your business! This book is what you NEED to read prior to starting your own business, easy to follow and most of all interesting! I can't stop readying it!

Very practical, clear and concise information and thoughts on all aspects of business. I definitely recommend this book for anyone with aspirations of owning their own business or building their career.

The first chapter is not very important, skim it or skip it and you'll find a treasure trove of 1-2pg shorts with universal, applicable wisdom on life, business, and productivity. I've been flipping through and picking one section each day and trying to apply it. This is not a book to read straight through IMO. Take the time to experiment with each topic and hold onto the parts that are most helpful for you.

Enjoyed reading this book. Very practical, well written book. The best part about the book I liked the part about top MBA schools. They admit only the top 5 % (cream) of all applicants. So, whether they do the MBA or not, they are sure to succeed.

Actually, the GREATEST Business book I have ever read, it's amazing how Josh explain everything and how he leads you to get more interested and want to keep reading it. Like the U.S. Customs Agent said, "Just what the world needs.. another business book", (you can read this in chapter one) and he was rigth, we really need one business book like this.

I personal highly recommended this book, not only if you wish to learn more about business, or if you're thinking or starting a new business, or just about to join an MBA program, (that will help you too) but the most important is that will give you more self confidence taking decisions not only in business but also in life, if you really get the concepts he give us in his book and use it.

Personal MBA is a great "all in one" business book and one of few that I go back to, again and again, to sharpen my skills and drill on the fundamentals. The bite-sized chunks are appropriate for most business people and should be read by many. Publisher and the store should consider offering an "upgrade" discount on digital orders for the revised version. I purchased the original edition just before the revision (Kindle version) and would happily pay a small premium for the new materials.

I have been looking forward to reading this book for several months since I discovered Josh through his business book reading list.

This is a great introduction to business basics. It will not make you as skilled an MBA just by reading or listening to the book but you will be exposed to the whole foundation of an MBA and given the recommended reading to continue your self-education.

I enjoyed Josh's approach and listening to him narrate the book. It really sounded like a conversation of a consultant who really wants to help me with my business rather than a stodgy professor in a business school.

Anyone wanting a good introduction to business basics, a great list of books on business, and an interest philosophy on business will enjoy this book.

+++
Gil Michelini, author
Daddy, Come & Get Me: a dad's adventure through a Guatemalan adoption

I learned about the Personal MBA project before the book was published. I anxiously anticipated it's arrival and now I am using it almost every day. There are millions of business books out there that focus on particular aspects of business. This book does not intend to be a replacement.
What it does is create the foundation. This work is a consolidated collection of "need to know" information. It is up to the reader to fully abstract the models into his/her situation.
Treat it like a reference book. Many people will want to read it page by page, word for word. That will be helpful. I recommend using this book like you would a dictionary or text book: Read what you need.

Awesome! Much needed.

This book will provide the basic concepts of business. The author provides a great inside into the business concepts, strategies, and will prepare you to have more than basic knowledge about several parts of the business processes.

I know Josh personally, having sought him out and then visited him in his hometown in northern Colorado. Very simply, you must have this book. The root of success lies here, in scores and scores of tidy, concise tidbits of expertise. The layout is unique and fun to follow. In my own bookWork the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less I talk of the non-necessity of instituting a long, formal, by-the-rules educational process in order to reach success, and that reaching goals lies in the repeated application of simple, fundamental rules. In Josh's book are the rules. Just the final chapters on systems are worth the price of the book many times over. I'll add that Josh is a down-to-earth, really nice guy; someone who walks the talk. Do it: Buy this book.

Nothing new here - but that's to be expected when the premise of the book and blog is to be curating and condensing all the best material available, and on that point it's unmatched. Drop the new-agey stuff and it would be a 5 star book.

While this is not meant to be an exhaustive resource on every topic you would learn in an MBA, it provides a fantastic PRACTICAL overview of dozens of concepts critical to really understanding how business works. A great tool to think about a new venture or an existing business - I actually sat down with my business partner the first night I got it and used it as a discussion starter to clarify our value proposition for a new venture we are starting. Overall, refreshing in its simplicity, clarity, and lack of pretentiousness.

Really enjoy reading this book. After having this on my bookcase for few years, I finally got the chance to finish reading it, I regret not reading it sooner.
Worthwhile time spend, a good starting point for business learning.

I have over 2000 (yes, physical, not electronic) books and this one is probably the most valuable business book in my collection.

It is a well written overview of concepts in how businesses work, how people work, and how systems work. Further, it is a guide and plan for getting an excellent business education via self-directed learning, with an active worldwide community to support such efforts.

If you don't already have a business education, using this book, this community, and actually doing business will give you a world class education in business. If you do have an MBA, it isn't for you.

I've learned economics, but just a little about real businesses, so it was useful for me.
It's an excelllent and inspiring overview, however you can find some chapters trivial if you are famailiar with the basics of micoeconomics or finance.
As I see it, the citation in the front cover tells you the essence: START HERE.
Have you already started elsewhere? No problem, but in this case this book won't be as interesting as The Count of Monte Cristo, but at least you can explore some areas what you don't know and have to be improved.

Josh Kaufman has done the heavy lifting for the rest of us.

Most business and self improvement books take a few simple ideas and expound upon them with examples, anecdotes, and reiterations until there is enough text to fill a book. The Personal MBA is the exact opposite: the author has taken the simple but powerful ideas from a wide range of sources and arranged them in a single collection that doubles as both a good read and a handy reference.

As someone who has spent years trying to accumulate mental models as recommended by Berkshire Hathaway's Charlie Munger, I plan to place this book on the same shelf as Poor Charlie's Almanack.

This book brings it all together. I am retired after 26 years of running a successful manufacturing business which I boot strapped from zero. How I wish to have read this book 20 years ago. I am now mentoring two well established businesses who have been struggling. Josh Kaufman's book puts in a readable package exactly what I have been passing on.

Fundamental! You can apply the lessons, techniques, and methods learned in this book to any field. Highly recommended that you read this book before you consider an education in business or starting a business.

Most business book writers search relentlessly for something to say that is different, unusual, catchy, and obvious so they don't confuse their readers. As a result, most business books focus on something the author perceives as unusual and, hopefully, moderately educational and then takes a chance that someone will buy it. In reality, the books turn out to be mostly re-chewed, re-structured, and re-arranged Peter Drucker. To quote Gary Hamel, "No other writer has contributed as much to the professionalization of management as Peter Drucker. . . . [He] bridges the theoretical and the practical, the analytical and the emotive, the private and the social more perfectly than any other management writer." Drucker was and is considered the foremost management and business thinker of the 20th century.

If you want THE authoritative book, read Drucker's book on management and thumb through any book written since to see if you can find anything more substantive, more compelling, or more educational. Start with Drucker and you'll be reading publications that purport to be advice-giving "business" books with a more incisive and skeptical approach.

This book brings it all together. I am retired after 26 years of running a successful manufacturing business which I boot strapped from zero. How I wish to have read this book 20 years ago. I am now mentoring two well established businesses who have been struggling. Josh Kaufman's book puts in a readable package exactly what I have been passing on.

Fundamental! You can apply the lessons, techniques, and methods learned in this book to any field. Highly recommended that you read this book before you consider an education in business or starting a business.

Most business book writers search relentlessly for something to say that is different, unusual, catchy, and obvious so they don't confuse their readers. As a result, most business books focus on something the author perceives as unusual and, hopefully, moderately educational and then takes a chance that someone will buy it. In reality, the books turn out to be mostly re-chewed, re-structured, and re-arranged Peter Drucker. To quote Gary Hamel, "No other writer has contributed as much to the professionalization of management as Peter Drucker. . . . [He] bridges the theoretical and the practical, the analytical and the emotive, the private and the social more perfectly than any other management writer." Drucker was and is considered the foremost management and business thinker of the 20th century.

If you want THE authoritative book, read Drucker's book on management and thumb through any book written since to see if you can find anything more substantive, more compelling, or more educational. Start with Drucker and you'll be reading publications that purport to be advice-giving "business" books with a more incisive and skeptical approach.

Positives features:

- It takes half a day to read it.
- It's a never ending learning tool.
- It concentrates all the main important concepts you need to tackle the main difficulties in the every day business life.
- It a potential infinite source of precious information concentrated in 400 pages.
- Absolutely worth to read it

Negative features:

- I'm still thinking on whether there are any but I'm not able find any of them.

Important Recommendation: BUY IT and go back through it at least one more time

My husband goes back and forth about going to business school but his biggest "con" is the cost and whether it's worth it. Mr. Kaufman might be coming from a biased side, but his book is clear and to the point that you don't have to go to business school to excel in business. Considering my husband would sink about 100k into bschool, this book was great. If you're looking for everything you'd learn at Harvard BSchool in a book, this is not it, but not everyone needs that. For those who want a voice on the side saying NOT to go through the time and expense of biz school, this is a good book to check out. He also has an excellent website, if you want to go there first.

This was a great overview of many different business topics and I like the way that Josh Kaufman was able to take complicated topics and provide a quick summary along with other books to read for greater understanding of a topic.

Josh writes each chapter in short note-like form so it's easier to digest and maintain focus. Sometimes books like this have chapters that go on and on and it's easy to get bored. Looking forward to using his site to grow in my business acumen. This book has already helped me so far.

Best book hands-down for any novice (or expert!) looking for a thorough grounding in business. Highly recommended for liberal arts majors (such as myself) looking for a spring board into the business world.