Tulane University Freeman School BLOG

I came across a pretty interesting read, The Personal MBA: Mastering Business Through Self-Education, by Josh Kaufman. For those of you who aren’t looking to switch careers or add another zero to your salary (to the LEFT of the decimal), simply doing the learning involved in an MBA may be for you. Especially with a bunch of top tier universities putting their content online for free (MIT, Berkeley, Yale, Tulane…?), getting the knowledge is even easier.

Sure you don’t build a solid business network, which I’ve argued in the past is a big part of bschool, however the knowledge learned is the same AND you don’t have to take classes you don’t want to.

Sample excerpts:

The Personal MBA is not:

A credential. If you read these books, you won’t have corporate recruiters beating down your door, and you won’t have a pretty certificate to hang on your wall when you’re done. You will, however, have an understanding of business that’s comparable to completing a traditional business school curriculum, along with the pleasures of not having to mortgage your life for that understanding. You do not need a certificate to be able to understand, use, and hold an intelligent conversation about advanced business topics. (Employers do, however, respond well to portfolios. If you build a portfolio of notes to capture what you learn through the Personal MBA, you’ll have a tangible asset to prove your hard work and dedication during the interview process.)

A stand-alone venture. You can’t learn about business solely from books (or sitting in a classroom); you have to be willing to go out and learn by doing. Whether you’re working full-time for a company or building your own business, a great deal of your knowledge will develop as a direct result of your day-to-day work experiences, which provide the necessary context for understanding what you read. Reading books is not enough; application of what you read is essential.

-Joel Yarmon
joel@tulanemba.org

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