By Josh Kaufman - The Personal MBA: A World-Class Business Education in a Single Volume

I love this book. It slips straight into my top 10 favourite business books out of the hundred or so that I own.I wish the title was different though. It was only by chance did I discover this book flicking through the pages in a book store. IF I had only read the title I wouldn't have bought the book! They should call it along the lines of 'Business mental models - the ultimate business bible'.I love this book. I'm not even a quarter of the way through and it already feels like I got my money's worth.It's written in a style/way that anyone can understand from any level so it's not a book that feels 'advanced'. Yet it still manages to make you think 'wow did I just learn something new' with the concepts (mental models) it manages to communicate so well. Something that many books of this category fail to deliver. Simple. Effective.Great book for any aspiring entrepreneurs or people contemplating starting their own business. I'm considering buying it twice - that's how stoked I am about this book.

This is a great practical guide for anyone interested in understanding the basics of business. Written in plain and simple English, it's easy to follow and laid out in a clear and logical way so you can easily see how each topic relates to the other key topics in business.It's a very comprehensive and thorough book which allows you to build on what you know, while giving you a roadmap to follow and see where potential holes in your understanding may exist. The book gives a terrific overview of business in bite-sized self contained chapters, so you can drop in and out at will.What I love most about the Personal MBA is that it doesn't fail to deliver on it's promise of practical, common-sense based business insights that anyone can understand and use. This book is rich in practical ideas drawing from an extensive number of diverse sources. It's well worth the cost as I feel I have a real treasure on hand with this book. I highly recommend it.

It's depth with many details, but It's a little boring for me.For a general understanding of business i recommend a video course from a teacher Eben Pagan called Get Altitude. It's expensive but i enjoyed very much.But on buying this book or the course, it is preferable to buy this book because is much cheap.

The premise of this book is that MBA courses are a waste of money and that just by reading business books you can learn all that you would do on a business course. In this book he sets out to provide all the basics that you will need.He actually does a pretty good job. He is a decent writer and as far as I can tell all the information in this book is accurate. It is certainly very comprehensive. Occasionally it does seem a bit shallow and he doesn't always provide a lot of detail. A lot of this information is available for free from other sources.His argument about MBA's providing poor value for money is convincing but there does seem a bit of a contradiction as he offers online courses that seem expensive to me. His website provides a lot of useful information for free though. He also has a reading list of 100 recommended business books.One thing that I personally wasn't so keen was the section on "working with yourself" The information that he provides is mostly decent but he does quote from and recommend the books of several self-help bloggers who don't seem that credible to me.I did really like the chapters on analysing and improving systems. I have a finance background and his chapter on finance seemed very credible and knowledgeable.For a single volume it does a great job in providing the reader with the fundamentals of business. It is a lot better written than the average business book and it seems like a pretty useful resource to keep on your desk.

The book provides a candid view about the pros and cons of going to a business school. It's claim of providing a solid alternative for developing your business career...without stepping into the 'hallowed grails' of business schools, are true.If you want to know about all the fundamentals of running your own business without shelling out thousands of dollars for that education or living the rest of your life under the debt burden, 'The Personal MBA...' is your best alternative.Highly recommended.

Excellent!! KISS meets common sense. An easy to understand quality read packed with fundamentals for all including those with an MBA. A good refresher for those with an MBA. A good reference book for those with or without an MBA. Easy and different approaches and concepts abound. To quote Seth Godin "File this book under: NO EXCUSES"

This book is written in a style and imparts a level of knowledge appropriate for someone who has never been in business or worked at an operational level in a corporation. It is mostly common sense mixed with some basic terminology, simple anecdotes and pithy quotes. It is superficial in all areas.I haven't completed an MBA but I feel fairly confident that the contents of this book do not mirror the contents of any creditable MBA program.I agree with the author that you can probably approximate an MBA eductation through directed self-study and that MBA programs don't represent value for money. I also recognise that what is written in the book represents sound business advice. However, it doesn't cover accounting, finance, operational management, strategic planning etc at anything like the depth that an MBA course would. The author may argue (and does) that this knowledge and associated thinking actually gets in the way of good business governance. Perhaps, but if you want to learn what MBA students are learning this book is next to useless.

The purpose of this book is not to go deep in business knowledge but to provide a solid basis in the overall concepts and skills needed to succeed as well as providing the reader with the next steps to follow.Great book, highly recommended for everyone willing to introduce himself into business aspects.

Bought this book based onthe recommendation from a UI developers site - and it has proven to be an enjoyable read. I really like the "snippet" summaries for each area he discusses; and the fact that once you are familiar with the book you can really use it like a reference. Just go back with a topic in mind and get your 60 second refresher.Not sure how this will help me career-wise but it does give me some new ways to view issues I deal with every day.

Honestly, this book was not for me. As someone with some business background (3 years of undergrad education), I wasn't exposed to many new principles in the book, nor was I treated to an in-depth explanation or discussion of any topic. I kind of flipped through the book, and eventually just skipped over most of it because I felt like I knew it already.I am not saying the book is not valuable, but it was just not for me. I think if you have any business background, or even a casual interest in business, this book won't do much for you. Each chapter is about 3-5 paragraphs, which leads very little time for a comprehensive explanation or discussion of anything. In my opinion, this approach was rather frustrating, as there were topics I wanted to know much more about than what he glossed over. I also found it to be long and rather dry, almost like reading a long series of tweets regarding basic business principles. This approach might work for some, but it wasn't for me.Having said that, I am sure this book will help many get a better overall understanding of business as a whole. Not only that, but I have experience with Josh's website and online course material, and found that stuff to be FANTASTIC. His videos are extremely well done and taught me so much. Unfortunately, I don't feel that his smarts and unique thought process came through as well in the book as they do on his site.tl;dr: Don't buy if you have a business background or want in-depth topical discussions.

I can't understand if it wants to be a book that resumes all MBA classes (in this case it fails miserably) or a personal development guide to be mor efficient and organized (but in that case the title is inappropriate). Eventually, i was a little disappointed of this book, although it is easy to read and globally simple (maybe too simple).

"Instant MBA" est un très bon livre qui permet de revoir ou de se familiariser avec certains concepts fondamentaux du monde du business au sens large (marketing, finance, théorie des organisations, stratégie etc.). Le style clair et concis de l'auteur et la structure du livre permettent de le parcourir rapidement ou de se focaliser uniquement sur les parties qui vous intéressent.Cependant, ce livre ne se suffit pas à lui-même, les différents concepts y étant abordés de manière succinte. Il faut plutôt l'envisager comme un outil permettant de se rafraichir la mémoire ou de découvrir de nouvelles idées qui seront approfondies par la lecture de livres plus complets.

Das Buch ist für mich das beste Einsteigerwerk in die Welt des Wirtschaftens. In kurzen Artikeln werden wichtige Konzepte auf den Punkt gebracht. Dabei geht es nicht um Standard BWL Wissen, sondern auch um die Psychologie des Arbeitenden und Kaufenden. Und darum, wie Systeme funktionieren. Sicherlich sind viele Konzepte nur kurz gefasst, aber wer will, kann ja immer noch weiter recherchieren. Es dient mir immer wieder als eine Art Nachschlage-Werk, wenn ich z.B. über Geschäftsideen brainstorme oder über die Wirkung von bestimmten Marketing Ideen nachsinne.Die Konzepte sind sehr verständlich erklärt und gut sortiert.Wer es liest und auf seine eigene Arbeit anwendet, der wird sicherlich neue Blickwinkel einnehmen können und in der Folge ausgewogenere Entscheidungsprozesse ausbilden.