Nov ’08 Update: I now have a dedicated page for my own .
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Training and education is an often neglected issue in small business. Smaller companies often don’t have the free cash flow available to pay for quality education, may not be able to cover team members while they are away, or don’t rate it as a priority because it won’t increase revenue next month. When it comes to the owners seeking education for the themselves, one of the most attractive options is an MBA which can cost up to $50,000 () and involve giving up evenings and weekends for a couple of years.
A guy by the name of Josh Kaufman believes that a lot of the value that could be attained from an MBA could also be found by simply reading some quality business books, and at a fraction of the cost. He does not claim that reading can replace an MBA. Many people do an MBA for the networking opportunities they provide and to improve their resume, and simply reading books will do neither of these things. What it can do, however, is actually teach you something about business – and for substantially less cost than an MBA. For small business owners, learning new skills that they can apply every day is arguably far more important than improving their resume.
Josh took this thinking and developed the Personal MBA. Here is an excerpt from the :
The Personal MBA (PMBA) is a project designed to help you educate yourself about advanced business concepts. This manifesto will show you how to substantially increase your knowledge of business on your own time and with little cost, all without setting foot inside a classroom.
The PMBA is more flexible than a traditional MBA program, doesn’t involve going into massive debt, and won’t interrupt your income stream for two years. Just pick up one of these business books, learn as much as you can, discuss what you learn with others, then go out into the real world and make great things happen.
If you’re interested in educating yourself about business, the Personal MBA is the best place to start.
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The core of the Personal MBA is a list of the very best books the business press has to offer. Some books will give you tools: processes or actions you can apply immediately to improve your life and work. Others will give you ideas: help in envisioning what you and your business are capable of becoming. All of them will give you mental models: useful ways of thinking about the world that you can use to your advantage in a wide variety of situations.
The is the tangible result of hundreds of hours of reading, research, discussion, and evaluation. By reading these books and applying what you learn to your daily life, you will progressively develop a greater understanding of business and increase your effectiveness in the working world. Each book in the list has been selected for a single purpose: to maximize your educational return on invested time.
I personally love the idea, and have read some of the books on the list. However, what I miss is the follow up discussion that I could get if I knew others that had read the same books. In my last corporate role I read a book, Winning by Jack Welch, which was great in itself but I also had several colleagues read it on my recommendation, and having a few people to talk to about the book increased the value I got from it substantially. So, on the back of this experience and wanting to do some more reading I would like to get a PMBA reading group up and running myself. Here is the plan:
- I’ll put together a list of interested people, made up of my clients and a few other friends and colleagues
- I’ll pick a date about 6 to 8 few weeks out
- Everyone on the list will get to vote for a book that we’ll all buy and read that month
- On the nominated date we’ll meet for dinner and start by talking about the book (what we liked or disliked, what we learned, how we might apply some of the lessons, etc). We can then spend the rest of the night networking with other small business people and enjoying a couple of glasses of red.
- We then set another date, vote on another book, and do it all again 6 or 8 weeks later.
For the cost of about 6 dinners and 6 books a year, you’ll get 6 fun nights out, 6 networking opportunities, and that little incentive to get you doing what you know you should probably doing anyway – getting some great education. As author , said:
“If I read a book that cost me $20 and I get one good idea, I’ve gotten one of the greatest bargains of all time.
If this idea sounds like something you’d be interested in, please let me know. Once I have enough interest I will set a date for the first session and we’ll pick our first book.
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