Personal MBA
The Personal MBA program founders think that you can understand the fundamentals and mechanics of business by reading a list of books that they have hand picked as the best in the business field. They conjecture you might get close to the same education level as a traditional MBA with much less time and money.
While skeptical that it will line up fully with most MBA programs, I think that this program has the right idea. The best learning comes when one is interested in something and really wants to learn more about it. I am interested in learning more about business and entrepreneurship since I feel that my strengths lead in this direction. It seems that these books will give a high return on time invested, as most of the time I see new connections or learn new skills. While the information might not be applicable right away, just knowing more gives me confidence that I will succeed when the time comes. There seems to be a lot to learn, but it’s not rocket surgery either. Many concepts are similar to each other, and having a background in economics probably helps.
My current PMBA progress is here. Both Getting Real (which you can read for free online) and How to Win Friends and Influence People are highly recommended for their fresh perspectives.
If you are in the Indianapolis area, I could be convinced to do a book swap. Many of these books can also probably be found at the library (although I haven’t looked much myself.) It would be helpful to chat about them to refresh my memory and solidify the concepts, so if you’re reading one, let me know. There are reviews or notes for a few of the books in the notes section of this blog.
next post: Caps Lock Remapping
How is this coming along? There sure are a LOT of books on that list.
Hey Matt,
Thanks for asking about the progress on this. I included a link of books that I had read on the post, but neglected to have the spreadsheet publish to the web page automatically. The list should be up to date now (and forever) on the blog post. I downloaded a bunch of books and bought a few more, and have steadily been reading one or two at a time. My general overall book WIP limit is about 3, as this is as high as I can comfortably go without forgetting things while being able to read as my energy dictates.
As far as ROI, I’ve enjoyed reading these books. I find that they give me a good perspective on business in general and for strategies for working more effectively with myself and others. I’d check out the Amazon reviews if you are interested in reading some of them. It really depends on what you are interested in and what you are hoping to get out of them.
Thanks again!
Nice. Progress is looking pretty good! WIP of 3 is pretty high IMO…impressive.