The Personal MBA Book Summary - The Personal MBA Book explained in key points

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Name: The Personal MBA
Rating: 3.9 (149 reviews)
Author: Josh Kaufman

Josh Kaufman

Master the Art of Business

3.9 (149 ratings)

19 mins

Topics

Small Businesses

Table of Contents

The Personal MBA
Summary of 9 key ideas

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What’s in it for me? Learn why you don’t need an MBA to be successful in business, just some basic guidance.

When it comes to business, most people think there’s an official starting line: A degree, an apprenticeship, or stumbling on the right amount of money.

Wrong!

You don’t need an MBA or a winning lottery ticket to start a successful business or improve the one you’ve got. You just need some common sense and a few basic guidelines. For example, every good businessperson knows how to negotiate, but you don’t need a whole semester to learn the key to good negotiation (Just check out blink seven).

And that’s just one of the tips that’s helped The Personal MBA become the go-to book for anyone interested in business.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

why an MBA is a big fat waste of time and money;
how to confirm if your business idea is any good; and
how borrowing money can actually increase your profits.

Business school: Not only is it extremely expensive – chances are, it won’t pay off.

Want to go into business, but have no idea where to start? Business school seems like a tempting prospect, a place where all the knowledge and contacts you need are simply handed to you – but is it really your ticket to success?

It has to be, right? Otherwise why else would people pay so much for their MBA? Business school is expensive, that’s for sure – the top 15 MBA programs charge up to $53,208 per year for tuition. That’s not even including fees, loan interest or living expenses!

What if we factor those into the equation, plus the opportunity cost of lost wages too? Turns out there are eight different US business schools where the cost of an MBA exceeds $300,000.

“Wait,” you might think, “surely not all business schools are that pricey!” True, however, any student who holds an MBA has an average debt of $41,687 (again, without accounting for additional expenses).

OK, so business school costs a lot. Is this what the educational experience is worth? Short answer: nope.

In the long term, an MBA does nothing for your career. If it did, a master of business administration degree should correlate with measures of success, like an increased salary, or promotions to higher level positions. And it doesn’t.

Researchers from Stanford University and the University of Washington conducted an extensive study into the matter. Analyzing 40 years’ worth of data, they found that there is no correlation between long-term career success and possessing an MBA, whether you graduated with flying colors or just scraped a passing grade.

So if business school can’t make your entrepreneurial career blossom, what can? Well, you can learn a lot from experience, and from your own research online – or from books like this one.

The perfect business idea balances money and passion.

Now that you know not to waste your money on an MBA, let’s get down to business – your business. What kind of company should you start? You might think that since the IT industry is booming right now, starting an IT business would be a smart idea. But what if you absolutely despise IT as a field?

Here’s a fact that more people should know: your business won’t thrive if you do it for money alone. Even if it’ll run itself eventually, your business will still need hundreds of work hours and generous amounts of money to set up.

Leveraging your investments can be rewarding, but it’s also risky.

So you’ve found a great new business opportunity, but you’re short on the cash you need to pursue it. Should you just stop right there? No way. Instead, leverage your investment.

What is leverage? Simply put, it’s any technique that amplifies investor profits or losses. Typically, it’s the strategy of using borrowed money to increase your profit potential. In this way, you can make enormous gains with very little of your own capital.

We’ve all got needs, and a product that satisfies them will sell.

Many think that for a product to sell, it just has to be good – not true. Consider this: People will only want something if it fulfills their needs. Let’s put it this way – a vampire won’t pay to use your state-of-the-art solarium (unless you’ve allowed him to use it to trap unsuspecting customers!)

All our decisions are influenced by our basic needs, including our buying decisions. Imagine selling a bottle of stale water to a hiker lost in a desert. He’d be willing to pay just about anything for that lousy bottle, just because it responds to his predominant need. The lesson here? Find your own desperate hiker.

A great product deserves great marketing.

Say your product meets not just one, but three of your customers’ basic needs. It’s ready to deliver! Now, where are all those clients who should be drooling over it?

Well, you’ll need to get their attention first. But in this age of social media and information overload, this is no easy task. If you want customers to pay attention, you’ll need to offer something remarkable and memorable.

Even when clients are reluctant, there are ways to make a sale.

Picture this: you’re visiting a pet store and see a puppy that you’re absolutely smitten with. But you’re unsure whether you want to buy it. The owner makes an offer to you to take the dog home for a week and guess what? It works its charms and you can’t imagine returning it once the week is over.

This is an example of how a sales expert can convince a reluctant prospect to become a customer. But how, exactly?

To strike a great deal, it helps to prepare.

How do you picture a negotiation? You might see yourself sitting at a conference table and discussing a deal, but don’t get ahead of yourself! This is just the last phase of a negotiation. A good negotiation actually occurs in several stages.

The first part of negotiation is setting the stage. Long before you start exchanging offers with your business partners, you can optimize your outlook in the early decisions you make. You could make sure you’re negotiating with the right person, for example: did the company send someone with real decision-making authority? Or just someone who’s been assigned to collect information for those in power?

A good leader is a good communicator.

Ever had a plan that seemed great until you tried to put it into action? Some bosses have great schemes they just can’t implement. Are they unlucky with their employees? Or is it possible they just don’t know how to communicate with them?

Here’s what they don’t know: If you want others to do something, you should tell them why you want them to do it. Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer demonstrated this in a study where her students asked others queuing in front of a Xerox to let them go first. 60 percent of the people agreed, but when a reason for the request was provided, an impressive 95 percent complied.

Use your day more effectively by listening to your body.

Sure, it’s no fun to be unproductive, but being too busy can harm you and your work too. The best way to be productive is, in fact, through setting limits.

If you have several things to do at once, your performance can be reduced across all of them. Your brain can only handle so much. Think of it like juggling: the more balls you’re trying to juggle at once, the more likely you are to drop them all.

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What is The Personal MBA about?

The Personal MBA contains everything you need to know in business. Today, true business leaders are forged through their own experience and personal research, not in universities. From developing your idea to sealing a deal, these blinks guide you through the entire process of becoming a self-made business success story.

Best quote from The Personal MBA

Business school is a big risk...the only certainty is that you will shell out about $125,000. – Wharton School of Business graduate.

—Josh Kaufman

Who should read The Personal MBA?

Anyone starting their own business
Anyone interested in how businesses function
Anyone running a business and seeking a refresher on the basics

About the Author

Josh Kaufman is an independent business adviser and the author of two international bestsellers: The Personal MBA and The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything, Fast. His website JoshKaufman.net was listed as one of Forbes’ Top 100 Websites For Entrepreneurs.

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