Monthly Archives: February 2009

Announcing the New Personal MBA Calendar!

Posted on February 18, 2009 | Leave a comment

Hello Personal MBA Students,

Please Read This Important Announcement:
Thanks to the brilliant work done by Josh Kaufman on the Personal MBA, you now have the opportunity to participate in one of the most innovative learning groups that exists in the country.

We are taking a major step towards achieving this vision today by announcing the next 5 books, and a tentative learning plan for the remainder of the year. You can now clearly see what you will be able to accomplish by committing yourself to the group. I am extremely excited about this; there is no other place in town where you will be able to find as much bang for your buck in terms of both money and time.

Upcoming Section: (book descriptions)
The next six sessions, with the exception of Think and Grow Rich will all come from the Productivity and Effectiveness section of the Personal MBA List.  In this section you will learn:

–To become a more effective thinker and deliver better results.
–To sharpen how you approach problems and handle projects.
–A complete system for organizing your day to day activities in order to minimize stress   and maximize results.
–To use the creative and imaginative powers of your mind.
–Practical information about project management.

Where Do I Get The Books? (website)

You can easily order all of the productivity books that we are studying from Josh’s Batch Book Buying tool. Just go to the website above and select the books that are contained in the schedule below. Please note that we are not studying ALL of the books in the section, so just select the ones that are in the schedule.

Schedule: (calendar link)

March 1st – Think and Grow Rich

March 15th – The Effective Executive

March 29th – Getting Things Done

April 5th – The Creative Habit

April 19th – The Path Of Least Resistance

May 3rd – Making Things Happen

May 4th – July 5th – Summer Break

July 12th – Resume Discussion

July 11th – Sept 20th – Marketing Sales and Negotiation (6 books)

Oct 4th – November 8th – Psychology and Communication (3 books)

November 15th – Dec 20th – Design and Production (3 books)

Thanks to everyone who has participated thus far. We have an opportunity to make this one of the coolest learning experiments in the country. The group still needs more participating members, and now is a great time to join.

Click here to go to our Meetup Page and signup!

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10 Days to Faster Reading

Posted on February 18, 2009 | 1 Comment

10daystofasterreading

10 Days To Faster Reading

Attendance: Chris, Harry, Justin, Nathan.

Overview

This book is designed to help your everyday untrained average reader learn skills that will improve his or her reading ability. It guides you sequentially through different techniques that enhance your reading skills and it has exercises and tests to try a long the way.

Commentary

Everyone seemed to enjoy this book quite a bit. I know that I did. Now I have skills that are going to help me keep up with all of the reading I plan to do without killing myself to do it. As far as discussion goes, it was very straightforward. The whole point of the discussion was not really to help anyone gain any new insight on the material, but just to activate another part of the memory to help remember the contents.

Because the goal of the discussion to commit the material to memory, I simply asked a series of questions that took us through the book. This resulted in lots of flipping through the book and reviewing the different concepts outlined within. I actually used the opportunity to finally take notes on the big post it flip chart paper.

Many people are at first skeptical of this book. But after reading it, I can truthfully say it has been very useful to me. I can now easily keep up with the reading that this group will require.

For me, the most useful techniques were:

1) Previewing — This technique is fantastic. It is basically a method of trying to find the authors outline so you can quickly go through a book or chapter and get the main points. I have really started doing this a lot.

2) Using a notecard as a pacer – This helps assure that you are not wasting eye movements looking back up at what you previously read, or trying to find your place. It also makes you keep up a constant pace.

3) Looking for Keywords – This method basically boils down to “read the big words.” Most smaller words add very little content to a sentence, and the meaning of the sentence can be derived from the bigger words. By training yourself to look for the bigger words you can cut down on about half of the words you are reading.

There are many more techniques in this book, and exercises to go along with them. The exercises were all easy and very helpful to practice the material. My reading skills have definitely improved as a direct result of this book. Unless you are already a really good reader, it is worth your time.

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StrengthsFinder 2.0

Posted on February 3, 2009 | Leave a comment

strengthsfinder2

StrengthsFinder 2.0

Attendance: Chris, Harry, Nathan, Jon.

Overview

The basic premise of StrengthsFinder 2.0, is that successful people spend more time working on their strengths, than on their weaknesses. This theory conflicts with cultural beliefs which often have us spending more time working on our weaknesses. A good example of this belief is demonstrated in the author’s research, where they found 77% of parents believe that their children should be focusing on the classes where grades are poor, versus classes where their grades are already high.

If people were to spend more time investing in their natural talents, then they would find better results. Strengths are made up of two components, Talent and Investment. The authors think that talent is a natural component. It is something that is very inflexible and it is unlikely to change. Investment is something that is controllable. You can choose to invest in something for which you have talent, or invest in something for which you do not. The idea is that you are going to receive a much higher return for your investment if you are focusing on your core talents.

This book is a different kind of book in that it is very interactive. Once you read the first section, you have covered the theory. You then take an online assessment, and at the end of the assessment it tells you your own five main themes. After that, you switch to the second half of the book where you will find detailed explanations and action items for each of your themes.

Commentary

As a whole, the group seemed to agree with the premise of the book. We definitely think it is important to be working heavily on our core strengths. However, some of us also felt that it is very important to have a basic level of competency in certain areas whether they are strengths or not.

Almost the entire group found the results of the assessment to be accurate. Everyone but one person thought that it described their personalities very well. This person was a little unsure about his results, because he felt that the test failed to identify a few of his core talents. Other than that, it was deemed useful in that it can provide a pretty fair assessment of a person in a short amount of time.

The nice thing about this book is that it is not just a theory and a test. It actually gives a person a lot to think about in terms of actionable behavior. It helps toanswer the questions, “What can I actually do to work on my own strengths? What can I do with this knowledge?”

In the section containing the detailed explanations, the book offers 10 suggestions of how you, as a person containing this as a major theme, should position yourself. An example of one of these action items is found in my assessment. The test results showed that ‘Achiever’ was my number one theme. This means that I do not feel satisfied unless I have achieved something during the day. This is regardless of whether it is a work day, or a weekend, or even if I am on vacation. I must be doing something tangible. One great suggestion I picked up is to make sure I factor my personal life into my goals. Achievers are prone to focus on work, and they sometimes neglect other important areas of their lives. This is because it is difficult to see a clear connection between your personal life and your achievements. Setting goals in your personal life will make it seem more tangible. That is just an example of many of the actions a reader can expect receive on completion of the assesment.

In addition to offering advice just on oneself, another group member is considering implementing this test in his organization. This would put him in a position to really understand what drives his employees. Understanding a person’s core strengths will tell you a lot about how to communicate with a person, what motivates them, and how you can expect them to behave in different situations.

It is apparent that this book can be a very valuable tool, both for personal growth, and in understanding the people around you. By better understanding what really makes yourself tick, you can really position yourself for success. The actionable items are useful, as is the overall profile. StrengthsFinder 2.0 is a great way to start the journey of positioning yourself for success.

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Posted in Discussions