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“Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.” – Isaac Asimov|

Are you aware of the Personal MBA? It’s a concept created by Josh Kaufman (following an idea by Seth Godin). Going off the assumption that business schools don’t have a monopoly on knowledge and wisdom, he suggests that every one of us passes a personal MBA by reading a selection of the best business books that exist, around 77 published in 2008 (93 with supplements) in 12 different categories :

1.Quick Start
2.Productivity and Efficiency
3.Psychology and Communication
4.Design and Production
5.Marketing, Sales and Negotiation
6.Entrepreneurship
7.Management and Leadership
8.Strategy and Innovation
9.Finances and Analysis
10.Personal Finance
11.Supplement : Business History
12.Supplement : Business Reference

My crazy project involving the Personal MBA consists of 52 books from this list. I am approaching this project seriously, and I am preparing for it in the same way I would train for a marathon: I know that the challenge will be long and hard, especially once the initial drive – as well the enthusiasm of getting started – wear off.

How shall I undertake this task? Here are the rules of the challenge:

1) Choose 52 books from the actual list of The Personal MBA.

2) Read one a week for 52 weeks. Write a relevant summary, that includes an overall summary as well as chapter by chapter, if the book lends itself to that.

3) Sacrifice only what is useless. I don’t plan on giving up my other activities – my business, improv theater, sports, my two entrepreneur clubs, my other blogs, my leisure time, my personal life. I am going to try and organize myself better and get rid of only what is useless – casually surfing the web, video games, YouTube, everything that wastes precious time in general. I can’t cut out TV, since I hardly watch it anyway.

4) Take action. To think without doing something is just as stupid as to do something without thinking. Thought is based both on our experience – in the field – and our knowledge – acquired from books, school, in conversation with others.

I don’t plan on necessarily reading the books in this order, but I will try to read everything one category at a time so that it is easier to compare and connect my new awareness. It will be a difficult challenge, but a really interesting one ! 🙂

Olivier Roland
http://www.articlesbase.com/self-improvement-articles/my-crazy-personal-mba-project-read-52-of-the-best-business-books-in-52-weeks-732533.html