Your Business Education Can Begin Here

The book is The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business by Josh Kaufman.  I stumbled upon this book when I was doing a search for some great business books.  I decided to give it a shot.  I was intrigued by the notion of self-education since the last formal school I graduated from was the US Naval Nuclear Power pipeline.  It was a great learning experience, but did not offer many applications to the business world. I had read several books in the Portable MBA Series in the mid and late 1990’s, but I failed to see the real-world applications of the knowledge.  Don’t get me wrong, I think the Portable MBA Series are great books!

I started my career as a “self-educated” entrepreneur over 20 years ago and my education was basically one where I signed up for various businesses and I gave people my money.  I then would operate my business with very little success outside of great learning experiences. I did get a lot of tax write-offs, but did not succeed in business to a level of my liking.

I decided to expand and identify my business education after putting my arrogance aside and taking a serious look at my results.  I LOVE THIS BOOK!  Josh gives a lot of real-world applications that makes this book a great reference book as well.  Instead of a PhD trying to show you what you would have learned from graduating from an Ivy League MBA program, this book shows you what the applications of various academic principles are to running a successful business.  It also gives you some suggested reading that will certainly help you educate yourself further in several topics of business study.

Remember, the object in business is to succeed.  This book can help you find your way to succeed in business.  Keep this book as a reference guide after you read it!

NEWSFLASH: "You Become What You Think About"

Do you know who thiss man is?  His name is Earl Nightingale.  He was on the USS Arizona as a Marine on December 7, 1941...and survived.  He went on to become a radio announcer in the 1950's and is thought of by many to be the father of the self-improvement industry. He is also credited with the phrase "You become what you think about most of the time" from his collection of audio recordings on success. He didn't make it up.  youi can find this in the New Testament, in the works of Emerson and Benjamin Franklin and I'm sure in several other sources throughout history.

Here's a good question:  What if it's true?  So what do you think about most of the time?  Are you bringing yourself success or are you in your own way?

Once upon a time I used to drink heavily.  One day, I was drinking at home alone (a huge red flag) wondering why my business efforts were not bringing the rewards I was "dedicated" to achieving.  Poor people or people who thought poorly (the same thing) all told me that God didn't want me to be successful or that it wqasn't my time or that I was destined to be poor.  Then, one day, I decided to track my time and my money.  I discovered that around 120% of my disposable income was going to alcohol and cigarettes.  I was also spending about 4-5 hours a day drinking...that's a part-time job.  To my chagrin, after I conmmitted myself to not drinking anymore, I realized just how much time I dedicated to drinking.  After about a year and a half, I realized how much time I spent smoking.  After that, I decided to stop smoking...I also decided I wanted to live a long and fruitful life. Since then, I have seen dramatic improvements in my life, my results and in the process identified one of the principles of success I was just not getting.

To end this story, I discovered that what I really do become what I think about most of the time.  This is the negative viewpoint of this fundamental truth. If you are focusing on poverty and thinking about poverty, you will have more of it.  If you are thinking about wealth, you are at least a little closer than you were.