Cool book.
I was recommended to read this book by a friend a few years ago. I guess it was kind of to mock me for paying
a lot of money to attend a program instead of just reading. After all these years, I finally decided to
read it.
The 30 Day MBA: Your Fast Track Guide to Business Success
I received my MBA in 2013, so I thought I’d do a
refresher on some of the business principles.
The title of the book seems to suggest that by reading the book for a
small price, you can get the same benefit but save all the tuition from
attending a fulltime program.
Personally, I think the “right” group of people to read the information
presented in this book are accepted MBA candidates.
This book to me is a perfect primer to expose
candidates to a variety of business functions and tune into the right mindset
while setting foot into a fulltime MBA program. Slightly off tangent, but for
Business Analytics, the perfect primer is this book:
Anyway, back to the 30 Day MBA. The writing is English based, instead of “American
English” based. So I found some of the
terms slightly refreshing. Such as
gearing = leverage? The most important
tools I learned in MBA were shown in the book and organized very cleanly. This is a toolbox book with a lot of tools
inside that I could constantly refer to.
The allocation of different business principles
were similar to my program with finance and accounting taking up 30%-50% of the
curriculum. Compared to other subjects,
finance and accounting are more straightforward, with correct answers to
homework, and also requires more precision.
The different finance courses I took all taught me something
different. However, the different
marketing courses I took mostly seemed to be the same. Other
disciplines are usually not as easily measured to be “right or wrong” when compared
to finance and accounting. You can BS
your way and “wing it” through most of the marketing courses, but try that with
finance?
Finally, why I don’t think a book can ever
replace a program (although, one most wonder if the cost of MBA is ever worth
it) is because MBA taught me certain things that could not be learned from a
book. Two things I find very hard to
replace.
First,
forced choices and constraints. 8 teams, 8 courses, job interviews,
networking, making friends(?), family, study, exams… Intentionally, our course was designed not to
be completed. It was “impossible” to
complete it. I streamlined my life
around studying. My cooking/eating time
takes less than 5 minutes. I slept at 4
A.M. and woke up at 7:45 A.M. every day.
I spent most of my conscious hours reading. MBA was the FIRST AND ONLY time I ever had eye bags (good genetics?). I read every assignment, and did every
assignment. In my second year, I asked
my peers how they did it. They told me
they didn’t. In fact, most didn’t read 30%
of the assigned material because there was so much. Asides from me, the most someone read (from
my limited survey) was 70% of assignments.
That classmate worked HARD and
didn’t have a social life.
In a “normal” life, we don’t push ourselves that
hard. We don’t make hard choices where
you’re trading a D in an exam for an interview.
High GPA or graduate without a job?
Do you spend the evening with your family, or you alienate them over the
tougher times and hope they understand. Happy
wife = happy life without income? When
you have 8 projects, but can only attend 3…
Which 5 teams do you disappoint?
How do you make up to them in future assignments?
This is as real as the real world still contained
in a safe environment. In the “real
world,” we all have limited time as an employee. The company has limited resources allocated
to you. Your counterparts also have
limited attention devoted to you. How do
you make those decisions? Books can
provide you theory, but you learn to make hard decisions by making hard
decisions. Just like you can read books
about poker, understand the odds, and understand the strategies… But betting your hard earned life savings on whether
a person is bluffing or not… And to
recover/heal from it when it backfires…
The only way is to walk through it.
Second,
the program hammers you into that fine sword you are, repeatedly. MBA has a rigorous filter on who they accept
(provided you go to a top program). Pick
anybody in your program, and they are probably A LOT better than you at something.
In fact, they are probably A LOT better
than you at A LOT OF THINGS. It keeps you humble, but it also hurts your
confidence. Every day, I go to class and
my confidence gets beaten down so hard…
At the end of the day I go home and lick my wounds. Crawl in my little corner and have my own self-pity
party. Repeat this for 2 years… It changes you internally. You come out stronger.
Read the book.
But know the limitations of a book.
