The personal MBA by Josh Kaufman proclaims one thing very clearly on its book cover itself. It says “A world-class business education in a single volume.”

Seth Godin, no need to introduce him I guess, he is a well-known name with a lot of credibilities attached to his words, he says,

“File this book under NO EXCUSES.”

A number one bestseller, coming from a very experienced man. I first came across Josh Kaufman via his TED talk about the first 20 hours of learning and how you can quickly learn a new subject or craft within a short period of time and utilize it commendably.

I will be honest here, I did not watch the whole of his talk or paid much attention to how you can learn something new in a short period of time, reason being, first, I was looking for practical, scientific ways, to organically grow or improve our cognitive functions so that we can either read faster, remember more and maybe apply it practically in a very useful manner. A complete overhaul, not a technique which he spoke about in his talk.

The technique is fairly easy, you can check out his TED talk here if you want to hear it with your own ears, however here’s a short version of it, “If you want to learn how to draw within 20 hours and develop enough skills to really draw something beautiful, you don’t really follow the general method by which most artists go.

You simply choose a specialty subject and only learn about it for the initial 20 hours or more. Say that you only learn and practice drawing faces. Very useful, good thought, but was not what I was looking for.

So how did I end up finding The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman?

Very simple. His talk got me curious, and he also has written a book about the same topic, I was not interested in that one at that moment, so I went ahead looking if he has any other material to be explored. That’s how I found the book.

The big question is, what is the book basically about other than the obvious title?

In his own words, this is a high-level overview of a vast body of business literature. For a newbie like me, who is not so familiar with business and its concepts, this is a great starting point.

All of the chapters are like short blog posts, not taking any more space than 1 or 2 pages each, with utmost 500 to 600 words within each chapter.

Sprinkled with relevant quotes, data, facts, and stories.

The book starts off with an introduction about why you should read this book, then goes on to discuss a number of important topics ranging from business, personal development, working with others, working with yourself, and the human condition.

Each section has various chapters corresponding to its title. Like “value creation.” Marketing concepts, sales, value delivery, finance, the human mind, improving systems, analyzing systems, etc.

Huge amount of information is delivered in a nutshell. Simply and accurately. The explanations are so simple, that I have no doubt, if anybody reads it, they will get it.

5 Example chapters from The Personal MBA

The section value creation has a chapter that teaches you 10 ways to evaluate a market.

In the section ‘sales’, you will learn about the 3 dimensions of negotiation.

Working with yourself is a section in which you will learn about how to maximize your
Productivity and minimize your errors or biases. One of the topics discussed in Akrasia.

Akrasia is quite similar in nature to procrastination but has very different implications.

When he speaks about the human mind in a different section, he discusses the cognitive scope limitation of humans, according to it, everything beyond your physical experience and environment, is unreal to you and you cannot make a sound judgments about your company and its employees. If given some thought to it, it could also really help you move out of your comfort zone, even though the chapter is discussed from a different point of view.

In the book, you also get to know about working with others, whether you are a student, a business owner, an athlete, or have a job that demands associating with others often.

The topic discussed is “Attribution error.” Attribution error is simply, a person blaming circumstances when he himself is wrong and blaming the ability or carelessness of the other when someone else is wrong. Wrong could also mean, an accidental mistake, an honest mistake, or really a circumstantial error. But the key takeaway here is, “Before attributing an error to someone and spoiling the form of your team, think practically and try their shoes.”

What is at the end of the book?

The author parts with the reader by giving 49 personal questions to ponder over and as a suggestion to maximize your results in life and in business.

He also gives you a huge reading list of books that he recommends reading to continue your learning, on the path of business and life.

2 quotes at the end of the Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman

 

“The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.”
~ Samuel Johnson, Essayist, and man of letters

 

“A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence
Living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.”
~ Henry David Thoreau

 

Finally, who should read this book?

1. Any new business professional should definitely pick it up.
2. Anyone who wants to start a new business.
3. Anyone who wants to understand business in a simple form.
4. Anyone who enjoys interesting food for thought, which has practical applications.
5. Anyone who is into self-development, because the concepts are universal and interesting.

 

If you are a reader from the US, Canada, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, and the UK then you can purchase this book from Amazon by clicking here.

Readers from India can purchase this book by clicking here.

Others can try clicking on one of the Euro stores and see if you land on your local Amazon store to purchase.

 

Conclusion

I personally recommend reading this book as it has a lot of data, from a thousand sources and experiences, which will take anyone at least a year to gather if they go out looking for this particular information on their own.

Also, who knows if you will always come across credible and useful sources? You might waste time if you stumble across the wrong stuff. Only the most essential and the most basic concepts have been mentioned here, after understanding them, you can really think about starting a business finally. You can be sure of nothing unnecessary coming your way.

The author has done all the hard work for you, plus has sprinkled it with his personal life experience. Which compliments it well. All about business, in a single volume definitely, but an overview, if you want to dig deeper, the author has mentioned various sources and material, plus at the end of each chapter, he has linked it to an even more detailed blog post on his website which you can explore if you want to.

Any questions about me, about the book, or your personal query or opinion, is most welcome. Say Hi! In the comments section.