Reddit mentions of The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business

Well this seems like a good opportunity to post a few of the lessons I learned in my 20s.

To my former self:

If you're depressed, here's how to turn it around

• Stop drinking, this is the main cause.
  
  
• Lift weights. This alone could also stop depression. It's likely related to low testosterone levels
  
  
• Fapping too much makes the depression worse
  
  Fap less, and never to porn
  
  
• Ejaculating too often removed your motivation to take actions and start tasks. You can consider porn like a poison for the mind. Pleasurable but it desensitizes you to all other pleasures, making life seem bland and boring. Until the only thing you want is porn. It perpetuates itself.
  
  
  Gratitude
  
  
• Whatever you are grateful for will grow
  
  
• Gratitude is the only way to be happy. If you think about what happiness is, it's appreciating what you have. When you think of something that would make you happy, you are imagining yourself appreciating it when you get it.
  
  Wealth
  
  
• You can have anything you want, as long as you create enough value for others first.
  
  
• To be wealthy, don't try and do tomorrow's work today, just have a successful day each day. If you have more successful days than unsuccessful days, your wealth will grow. As you have successful and productive days, opportunities will be attracted to you.
  
  Theories
  
  
• The key to success in any area is having the right theory. A small amount of work, or a massive amount of work, with the wrong theory, won't lead to success.
  
  
• With the right theory, success will be relatively straight forward. When you do the thing, it will basically work every time. Anything that has been done many times before, can be done yourself with the correct theory
  
  
• When most people speak of the 'years of hard work' they put in before they 'cracked the game', usually means they were laboring under the wrong theory, and then one day they found the correct theory, and when they applied it, it worked. (excluding world class athletes, talking about common things like starting a business or growing muscles)
  
  
• Theories can be gathered by spending tens of thousands of dollars on seminars or tens of dollars on books. Both can contain theories that work and theories that don't work. Higher cost definitely does not mean they have the right theory
  
  
• Some theories can seem like they are guaranteed to work, but on testing, actually don't. When someone says they have the right theory, it will seem worth any price. Often they actually don't. Beware. If possible buy their book and test it for yourself, it's just as good in book form.
  
  
• This whole list is a list of theories, as you can see, they are usually quite simple and easy to understand. Complexity is usually a sign the person doesn't really know how things work
  
  
  Girls
  
  
• You cannot make a girl like you, you can however find a girl who likes you
  
  
• They key to getting girls is to get in excellent shape (lift weights), dress well, and talk to girls until you find one that likes you
  
  
• If a girl is unsure if she you likes you, won't go on a date with you, or doesn't let you touch her in anyway. She doesn't like you. Find one that wants all those things. Don't be fooled by girls who seem to REALLY like you but doesn't have time to meet, or won't let you touch her. They do not like you like that.
  
  
• Hot girls are just as likely to like you as not hot girls
  
  
• If you like a girl more than she likes you, and she doesn't want to meet up/hang out/have sex. Let her go and move on
  
  
  Career
  
  
• It's very easy to get ahead if you just try, most people don’t
  
  
• You career will naturally progress just through normal learning, don't worry about it
  
  
  Flow
  
  
• If you want things to happen without effort and struggle, live a life with gratitude and presence. Things will seem to happen easily and naturally.
  
  
  Meditation
  
  
• Mediation gives you the ability to be your best. Very handy for improving at anything, particularly gaming, as you see more and learn more. It gives you access to creativity in solving problems and improving your performance
  
  
• Mediation allows you to 'stop the mind'. Do this if you're stuck in over-analysis
  
  
• To meditate, set a time on your phone for 20 minutes, sit still and don't move a muscle, and focus on your breath as often as you can. Your mind will try to stray, just focus on your breath as much as able. This is how you quiet the mind
  
  *****
  Edit:
  
  To answer some requests, here's my list of resources.
  
  Wealth/Metaphysics
  
  
• http://www.audible.com.au/pd/Health-Personal-Development/The-Science-of-Getting-Rich-Audiobook/B00FMUQVSI
  This audiobook has the best summary I've found of how wealth works
  
  Lifting
  
  
• https://stronglifts.com/5x5/
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Starting-Strength-Basic-Barbell-Training/dp/0982522738
  
  
• http://startingstrength.com/
  
  
• http://www.leangains.com/2011/09/fuckarounditis.html
  
  How Procrastination works:
  
  
• https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-procrastinate.html
  
  
• https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/11/how-to-beat-procrastination.html
  
  How Business works
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Personal-MBA-Master-Art-Business/dp/1591845572
  
  What innovation actually is and how to do it:
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Innovation-Entrepreneurship-Peter-F-Drucker/dp/0060851139
  
  How economics works:
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/How-Economy-Grows-Why-Crashes/dp/047052670X
  
  How to get things done:
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0142000280
  
  Task Management tool:
  
  
• https://todoist.com/
  
  Spiritual Books
  
  
• Spiritual books won't make sense unless you've had an awakening, and you can't make this happen, it happens by chance/grace. If you have, anything by Eckhart Tolle will be amazing.
  
  How to be a man:
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Way-Superior-Man-Spiritual-Challenges/dp/1591792576
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Truth-Spiritual-Guide-Death/dp/1591792592
  
  Audiobooks (most of these can be found on audiobook):
  
  
• Audible.com
  
  Frame Control (Anytime you feel like you're trying too hard or begging for something, you lost the frame)
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Pitch-Anything-Innovative-Presenting-Persuading/dp/1501211811
  
  This is my favourite book of all. They talk about the new type of conscousness which is really really interesting to me. May not apply to all people.
  If anyone find this book interesting I'd love to talk about it:
  
  How the world works:
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Spiral-Dynamics-Mastering-Values-Leadership/dp/1405133562
  
  
• https://www.audible.com.au/pd/Spiral-Dynamics-Integral-Audiobook/B00FO5660E
  
  

Recommended reading

Here is my suggested reading list for anyone who ever wants to be a small business owner. I like audiobooks but you can get some of these in print also.

Entrepreneur Mindset

There are several books that talk about the entrepreneur mindset. “Rich Dad Poor Dad” was one of the first that I had encountered. “Four Hour Work Week” is a popular one among young adults and lazy millennials now. But I think this one below sums it up in a relatively fast and easy way. To me there is nothing wrong in this book, but in my opinion it’s a little incomplete and inaccurate and won’t work for some people. It doesn’t say how to switch lanes, or say that you can be in two lanes at the same time. Still, it should be required reading for anyone remotely interested in business. It’s at the top of my list because the correct mindset is required before anyone can think about actually doing business.

http://www.audible.com/pd/Business/The-Millionaire-Fastlane-Crack-the-Code-to-Wealth-and-Live-Rich-for-a-Lifetime-Audiobook/B0143BEDUO


Business and Marketing

These two combined are basically an MBA in a box and then some. They are long audiobooks that go over the lessons of an MBA program, and the first one also covers a lot of life hacking and mind hacking theories such as how to stay motivated etc. Some of this stuff is very interesting, some if it is boring to slog through. But knowing what is in here will have you well versed to communicate about business at a high level. I have listened to both several times, I keep coming back because it’s a lot and I can’t learn it all at once.

https://www.amazon.com/Personal-MBA-Master-Art-Business/dp/1591845572

http://www.audible.com/pd/Business/Critical-Business-Skills-for-Success-Audiobook/B00UY842O8


The E Myth series basically describes how many entrepreneurs fail to implement systems in their business. It has a couple other important business concepts and is geared mainly for beginning entrepreneurs or those who have not yet studied a lot about business at a high level.

http://www.audible.com/pd/Business/The-E-Myth-Revisited-Audiobook/B002V1LGZE

Mike Michalowicz, Solid principles, Some are regurgitations of Seth Godin and E-Myth, but some are original and insightful. Not very efficient in delivery of material, but I would highly recommend.

https://www.audible.com/pd/Business/The-Toilet-Paper-Entrepreneur-Audiobook/B00FKCI3I4

https://www.audible.com/pd/Business/The-Pumpkin-Plan-Audiobook/B008CHN41K

https://www.audible.com/pd/Business/Profit-First-Audiobook/B06X15WX5B

In the world of marketing, Seth Godin is well known as a forward thinker. He has a new perspective of thinking about marketing in the internet age.
Seth Godin Startup School. This is a series of 15 short podcasts, maybe 15 to 20 minutes long each. It’s a good cliff notes version of a lot of his other books.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/seth-godins-startup-school/id566985370

http://www.audible.com/pd/Business/Purple-Cow-Audiobook/B002V0QOJS

http://www.audible.com/pd/Business/All-Marketers-Are-Liars-Audiobook/B002V1NIMI

Gary Vaynerchuk is well known in online entrepreneur forums, especially with a younger audience. He is interesting to listen to and talks at a basic level mostly about social media marketing.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfA33-E9P7FC0AoARnMLvgFgESJe4_Ngs

This is a link about fashion, but it could just as easily be about restaurants or any other business. As you read it, substitute the product for your product or widgets and it makes sense.

https://moz.com/ugc/how-to-build-a-great-online-fashion-brand-34-things-that-really-amazing-fashion-retailers-do

It’s probably not necessary to read this whole book, but it’s widely referenced and it’s important to understand the theory. This guy basically coined the phrase “Lean Startup” to describe businesses that start small and apply the scientific method to determine which direction to grow. Not to be confused with LEAN Manufacturing methodology made famous by Toyota, but follows similar principles.

https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Startup-Entrepreneurs-Continuous-Innovation/dp/0307887898


There are a lot of great posts in reddit. There are a lot of crappy ones too. But worth trolling.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/

https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/

https://www.reddit.com/r/restaurateur/ (yes it’s spelled wrong)

For example, this post basically has a step by step guide to start a small business.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/5lfy6n/4_years_ago_i_wrote_a_case_study_on_reddit_on_my/

Other links
21 Lessons From Jeff Bezos’ Annual Letters To Shareholders

https://www.cbinsights.com/research/bezos-amazon-shareholder-letters/#2000


E Commerce, Design, Online Marketing
This guy has a very interesting perspective on display tactics.

https://www.nickkolenda.com/

A good source for tactics. Also offers one of the better wordpress themes

https://thrivethemes.com/6-brain-hacks/

These guys offer great information and insight in their podcast.

https://ecomcrew.com/episode-1-welcome-to-the-ecom-crew-podcast/

Landing Page Optimization
Important for all businesses even offline, for example with restaurants these principles could help for menu design or digital signage, for other businesses this knowledge can help with advertising layouts etc.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-brand-strategies-uniquely-position-your-ecommerce-above-bhardwaj

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/7-landing-page-design-tips

https://blog.kissmetrics.com/landing-page-design-infographic/

https://moz.com/ugc/how-to-build-a-great-online-fashion-brand-34-things-that-really-amazing-fashion-retailers-do

https://thrivethemes.com/6-brain-hacks/

This book discusses apps, especially networking apps like Uber.

https://www.audible.com/pd/Business/Platform-Revolution-Audiobook/B01DDX7MJ2

Also

http://andrewchen.co/marketplace-startups-best-essays/

A good page of links

http://www.themissionmarketer.com/digital-marketing-resources/


For Restaurants

http://www.restaurantowner.com

Very valuable stuff here. Business plan templates, etc. $30 a month for a subscription but well worth it if you are starting or running a restaurant.

https://www.restaurantmastering.com

http://www.typsy.com

Not worth the paid membership yet, but it's growing. And you can get a free trial for like a week and binge watch everything.

Dealing with delivery aggregators

https://www.reddit.com/r/restaurateur/comments/76sd1i/uber_eats_what_percentage_you_paying_em_anyone/

Edit: spacing

Happy to help :) It is a near lifetime of just being a business junky and just loving to read about this stuff. The best and easiest book I give people when they want to learn business is the Personal MBA.

http://www.amazon.com/Personal-MBA-Master-Art-Business/dp/1591845572/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375464773&sr=1-1&keywords=personal+mba+josh+kaufman

It is a solid, easy to read overview of business. You wount become an expert from it, but it is a 'explain like I am five 'introduction into business.


For innovation and new market development specific (My specialty) I'd go with Crossing the Chasm Quick read

http://www.amazon.com/The-Innovators-Dilemma-Revolutionary-Business/dp/0062060244

Lastly, take a strategic finance class. No numbers, simply the logic behind what is value. I've been told The Wall Street MBA is a good read but I can't vouch for it.
http://www.amazon.com/Wall-Street-MBA-Second/dp/007178831X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375464915&sr=1-1&keywords=wall+street+mba

Finance will ultimately change how you think. And not entirely for the better...

The bigger problem is the first one - getting a good grounding in Marketing, as the fundamentals don't really change although the media does. Social media marketing is Marketing, and follows many of the same principles.

Would recommend taking a look at Josh Kaufman's book The Personal MBA (Amazon) and here's his list of 99 books from his website of which the marketing books listed there is a very good place to start.

You can basically waste a TON of time on the plethora of so-called 'social media marketing experts' who are experts at selling to others social media marketing 'secrets'. It's a bit of old-fashioned hucksterism that makes them a lot of money (true) but may not be all that worthwhile (unless you want to sell social media secrets for the future career).

As a professional marketer myself, having been in many roles in Marketing (and outside sales and product development), you've got to have a foundation to build on.

Even consider taking a MOOC from a reputable place on Marketing, it's a discipline of study for good reason, and then see how the social media part fits into it.

In my own situation, Large Mega Corp the revenue from Social Media is on the order of 1% (we track such things), while the web is on the order of 15%. We still have a direct sales force (we are B2B) and have events and exhibit at conferences; I have no illusions about all the marketing that needs to be done offline (where still many of our customers are).

Just my $0.02, FWIW.

Some books that come to mind:

• Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals by Heidi Grant Halvorson: a guide to setting goals.
  
• So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport: why "follow your passion" is terrible advice and what to do instead.
  
• The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman: an MBA crash course.
  
• The 80% Approach by Dan Sullivan (short and free): overcome perfectionism; 80% done is good enough.
  
• Learn to Program by Chris Pine (free): a great intro to programming.

You dont need to take a class. Get the book "Personal MBA" https://www.amazon.com/Personal-MBA-Master-Art-Business/dp/1591845572 Get it right now. Go to Barns and Noble or Download a digital version. This is your course, its $15 and you will be done in 3 days and know more about business than most people.

I am not much of a book reader but the Personal MBA is a great read. I feel without a doubt that I got my money's worth of information about business in general.

https://www.amazon.com/Personal-MBA-Master-Art-Business/dp/1591845572

I'm working on an MBA right now with about 12 years in the IT industry, 5 of which has been in IT Management. If I didn't have real world experience under my belt I wouldn't be able to apply a lot of what I'm learning. Personally, I have to apply what I'm learning for it to really stick. If I didn't have real world experience then sure, I'd still get good grades, but grades alone aren't the point right? School and the business world are very different. I highly recommend getting out there gaining some experiential education, and then take on the MBA if you still think it would be valuable.

A large part of the value in a good MBA program is networking and what you learn over and above the course material by interacting with your professors and fellow students. That said, if you want a crash course in some of the business fundamentals that may be taught in a typical MBA program, I've heard many people highly recommend the following book.

The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business

The Personal MBA - excellent resource and really helps you grasp the business side.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Personal-MBA-Master-Business/dp/1591845572

The Personal MBA

There's a million things most people on this sub could recommend, and really the learning never stops.

Here are some good starting points:

The Hard Thing About Hard Things - Ben Horowitz

Zero to One - Peter Thiel

The Personal MBA - Josh Kaufman

The Four Hour Work Week - Tim Ferris

Oh man. It's a long journey from "no clue" to "men's suits" even without the business aspect. To get started in garment sewing, I'd recommend starting with aprons and then pajama pants. Both are those are simple, use cheap fabrics, and require you to learn the techniques you'll use in more advanced sewing - and you can still wear them around the house, even if they turn out embarrassingly bad. (The first few probably will suck pretty bad!) You can also experiment on those forms with buttons, zippers, elastic, embroidery, lots of design elements you'll need for other garments.

The name of the game in this learning cycle is "fail faster". If you work on a more complex garment (even in the muslin stage) you'll be significantly time-invested before you see how it's turning out. You can make an apron or some PJ pants in an afternoon. Almost-instant addicting gratification and you can see where you need more practice quickly.

On the business side, becoming a recognized brand happens via marketing. You should read The Personal MBA as a primer on business in general. I work for an ad agency, and I've worked on fashion brands - it's tough to make it in fashion, whether it's fast fashion or designer. A lot of people want to "become recognized", it's a high-competition field. Not saying you shouldn't go for it, just be realistic that "recognized brand" does not happen overnight (or cheaply).

A nice broad crash course is The Personal MBA. I wouldn't say it's in-depth, but a good overview of a wide range of concepts.

I don't know if it's the link or the website, but I get a redirection...not the best for thrusting a website.

Wordpress (.org) is great just find a better theme and browse the plugins.
for example Louis vuitton is running on wordpress. There is a lot of multinationals using wordpress.
And do the updates !!! you're using wordpress 4.5.4, the last version is 4.7
You need a theme with a e-commerce integrated in it and a SSL certificate
in order to sell; I didn't get what you want to sell btw.

Also I hope you have a backup of your website!

Online Business query on youtube - Freemium is the trend you can find a lot of free tutorial to learn the basics of business on youtube.

Next I recommend some readings (not affiliate):
-The personnal MBA - Josh Kaufman
-Growth Hacker Marketing - Ryan Holiday

• This blog on growth hacking: https://www.hackisition.com/

I'd start with either the Complete MBA For Dummies or The Complete Idiot's Guide to MBA Basics, 3rd Edition then advance to The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business or The Ten-Day MBA 4th Ed..

I found a lot of value in The Personal MBA. Sit down with it some afternoon and it'll help you decide what path to take.

I also recently got started in the share market. I've been applying to IPOs and gradually learning about how to judge whether a company is fundamentally strong or not. I'm learning from a combination of reading news( news on the company, acquisitions, sentiments), books on how investing works(https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/817589.Learn_to_Earn), how a business works(https://www.amazon.com/Personal-MBA-Master-Art-Business/dp/1591845572) and various financial metrics(P/E ratio, EPS, etc.) via data camp(https://www.datacamp.com/courses/importing-managing-financial-data-in-python, https://www.datacamp.com/courses/intro-to-financial-concepts-using-python, https://www.datacamp.com/courses/intro-to-portfolio-risk-management-in-python).

There is a really excellent book called The Personal MBA that could easily be read in less than a week. It would not make you "well rounded" in one week but it does summarize and give good explanations of much of what you would learn in an MBA curriculum. Definitely something to include. I am not connected with the author.

I'm not familiar with any textbooks but one book that's similar to a textbook is The Personal MBA (https://www.amazon.com/Personal-MBA-Master-Art-Business/dp/1591845572/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1538444048&sr=8-2&keywords=personal+MBA). I found it to be like a textbook in a negative way and never finished reading it because I'm personally more into mindset. He read hundreds of business books and compiled all that knowledge into this book. It's exhaustive from that standpoint.

You shared a lot of information and I have just a few thoughts for your consideration. These are in no particular order. These more focus on the advice-guidance. I am in a technical field and though I lead some strategically, I'm more a technical advisor than director.

1. Identify why you want the degree. I offer this piece of advice to anyone seeking a degree. Is it for the knowledge-expertise (which you can obtain with research & practice), the contacts (which you can obtain through networking-socialization), the structure of the degree work-study, or for some “credential” or “authenticity?” I ask this because in America (my country), tuition, resources, and books can be… costly. (Consider a book like this that might provide summary information that would lead you to the expertise, “The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business,” https://www.amazon.com/dp/1591845572/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_9W8FDbHK047NT )
   
   
2. Cozy up to those two law seniors. Network them and their contacts. This will open up job possibilities, new perspectives, new contacts, and new knowledge-expertise.
   
   
3. Consider rather than “finding” a job or role that matches your vision, that you create your job or role. Immediately after digesting your post, the easy thought of “independent strategic legal consultant” popped into my head. I’m uncertain on the how just yet, but I’m certain there are plenty of opportunities around just in small-mid sized corporations. If Indian corporations are similar to American, a law firm will represent most of the larger ones.
   
   
4. Is it possible that you could also flex (assert?) your current role – department head and department roles and responsibilities to either carry you during this transition of finding a new job/role or grow into that new role?
   
   
5. Boredom will happen in almost all corporate, firm, or hierarchical organization type jobs, not just your current one. Routine diligence, repetitive work, are not areas we excel at, especially if the tasks have been mastered. There’s no challenge. You might have to trick yourself to look for other challenges outside of those routine tasks. For instance, what about your social interactions within the job? Or long term plans to move/shape the role/department to your vision.
   
   I hope they help and good luck.

I am in a similar situation. I have spent my summers working for my family business. I worked at the assembly, warehouse, R&D you name it. I think its important to understand the people that you work with, understand their day-to-day jobs and really know your company.

Start with the product, learn every detail of the process it goes through to become a final product. You will also build a good relationship with your workers that is important too.

Once you feel confident, dive into management. Accountants and marketing people are the backbone of the business. Know what they are doing, their strategies. Learn how financing works in the company and who you are selling your products. Make some cold-calls to new customers, learn the trick of the trade.

Only once you really know how things work, set a goal! Say "I will grow this company 2 times the size it is today!" - its easier said than done.

If you didnt receive a former education in business, here are my top sources where I learnt a lot:

https://www.amazon.com/Personal-MBA-Master-Art-Business/dp/1591845572/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473345589&sr=8-1&keywords=personal+mba

https://www.amazon.com/HBR%C2%92s-Must-Reads-Boxed-Books/dp/1422184056/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1473345608&sr=8-2&keywords=HBR+essentials


These books wont tell you how to run your grandfather's business but they will tell you what a business is/does and how you can steer it. The rest is creativity, hard work and vision.

Hope this helps!

Here are two great books to start with:

Personal MBA - https://www.amazon.com/Personal-MBA-Master-Art-Business/dp/1591845572?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

Entreleadership - https://www.amazon.com/EntreLeadership-Practical-Business-Wisdom-Trenches/dp/1451617852/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466870653&sr=1-1&keywords=entreleadership+dave+ramsey