Corentin Derbré

Books:

The Personal MBA – Josh Kaufman

ISBN: 1591845572

Date read: 2017-12-10

How strongly I recommend it: 9/10

(See my list of books, for more.)

Go to the Amazon page for details and reviews.

A dictionary that covers everything for business. Written in small bits that are easy to read, with examples. A must-read for understanding business.

my notes

mastering the fundamentals can take you surprisingly far. I call these foundational business concepts mental models, and together, they create a solid framework you can rely on to make good decisions.

“It’s hard for me to understand,” he wrote, “why [getting an MBA] is a better use of time and money than actual experience combined with a dedicated reading of 30 or 40 books.”

Every successful business (1) creates or provides something of value that (2) other people want or need (3) at a price they’re willing to pay, in a way that (4) satisfies the purchaser’s needs and expectations and (5) pro- vides the business sufficient revenue to make it worthwhile for the owners to continue operation.

How Businesses Work. How People Work. How Systems Work.

I also recommend setting a reminder in your calendar to review this book or your notes every few months to reinforce your understanding and spark new ideas.

\1. Value Creation. Discovering what people need or want, then creating it. 2. Marketing. Attracting attention and building demand for what you’ve created. 3. Sales. Turning prospective customers into paying customers. 4. Value Delivery. Giving your customers what you’ve promised and ensuring that they’re satisfied. 5. Finance. Bringing in enough money to keep going and make your effort worthwhile.

Core Human Drives \1. The Drive to Acquire. \2. The Drive to Bond. \3. The Drive to Learn. \4. The Drive to Defend. \5. The Drive to Feel.

Ten Ways to Evaluate a Market https://personalmba.com/10-ways-to-evaluate-a-market/

Most successful businesses o er value in multiple forms.

Pick three key attributes or features, get those things very, very right, and then forget about everything else.

To charge nobody nuthin’ is a guarantee of no profit. Getting attention is not the same as getting paid.

learned to fully appreciate the quality of what she was selling.

The first thing to decide before you walk into any negotiation is what to do if the other fellow says no. Who is involved in the negotiation, and are they open to dealing with you? Who are you negotiating with, and do they know who you are and how you can help them? What are you proposing, and how does it benefit the other party? What’s the setting—will you present your offer in person, by phone, or some other means? What are all of the Environmental factors around the deal—do recent events make this deal more or less important to the other party? What exactly will you propose, and how will you Frame your proposal to the other party? What are the primary benefits of your proposal to the other party? What is the other party’s Next Best Alternative, and how is your proposal better? How will you overcome the other party’s objections and Barriers to Purchase? Are there Trade-offs or concessions you’re willing to make to reach an agreement? Being able to say, “I need to discuss this with my agent/accountant/ attorney” before giving final approval on a deal is a valuable check-step that prevents hasty or unwise decisions.

As a rule of thumb: don’t give anyone unfettered control over decisions that directly affect your money.

Reciprocation is the strong desire most people feel to “pay back” favors, gifts, benefits, and resources provided. If someone benefits us, we like to benefit them in return.

By giving away value and helping others as much as you can, they’ll respect you; it will build your Reputation, but it will also increase the probability that they will be interested enough when you do present your Call-To-Action.

Counterintuitively, making a Damaging Admission like this to your prospects can actually increase their Trust in your ability to deliver what you promise.

Dollar throughput is a measure of how quickly your overall business system creates a dollar of pro t. Assume a standard time unit, like an hour/ day/week/month—how many dollars does your business system produce on average during that time? e faster your business produces dollars of profit, the better.

Humans don’t Scale.

Don’t focus on competing — focus on delivering even more value. Your competition will take care of itself.

If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.

You can get anything you want in this life if you help enough other people get what they want. People buy because they believe they’re getting more value in the Transaction than they’re spending.

Improve by 1% a day, and in just 70 days, you’re twice as good.

Continuing to invest in a project to recoup lost resources doesn’t make sense—all that matters is how much more investment is required versus the reward you expect to obtain.

Oftentimes, what we experience as mental fatigue or emotional distress is simply a signal from our body that we’re not getting enough of something we physically need: nutrients, exercise, or rest. When you have a lot of work to do, it’s common to think that taking care of yourself is a secondary concern. It’s not—taking care of yourself should be your primary concern if you want to get important things done without burning out. Nutrition, exercise, and rest are the inputs your body converts into productive energy.

Getting as little as ten minutes of sunlight in the morning is a very easy way to improve both your sleep and your mood.

The views expressed here do not necessarily represent the unanimous view of all parts of my mind.

Once you understand that people act to control their perceptions, you’ll be better equipped to influence how they act.

Whenever an individual or a business decides that success has been attained, progress stops.

Good books, magazines, blogs, documentaries, and even competitors are valuable if they violate your expectations about what’s possible.

If you want to successfully change a behavior, don’t try to change the behavior directly. Change the structure that influences or supports the behavior, and the behavior will change automatically.

The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.

In the Now Habit, Neil Fiore recommends creating an “unschedule” that prioritizes rest over work. When your brain is sure that you’ll be receiving all of the relaxation and enjoyment you need, and that you only have a certain amount of time to get things done, it’s easier to focus on doing productive work.

We don’t see things as they are. We see things as we are.

In general, “moving away” takes priority over “moving toward.” e reason comes back to Caveman Syndrome—running away from a lion automatically takes priority over cooking lunch.

great management is boring—and often unrewarding.

To think is easy. To act is difficult. To act as one thinks is the most difficult.

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.

Here are a few questions to help you discover things worth Testing: How much sleep do you need to feel rested and alert? Which foods make you feel energetic after eating? Which foods make you feel ill or lethargic? When do you do your most productive work? Are there any patterns in your productivity? When do you get your best ideas? What are you doing when they occur to you? What is your biggest source of stress or concern? When do you start worrying, and why?

Personal Research and Development (R&D)

The more people know your capabilities and re- spect the Reputation you’ve built, the more Power you will have.

Comparative Advantage means it’s better to capitalize on your strengths than to shore up your weaknesses. Comparative Advantage also explains why diverse teams consistently outperform homogenous teams.

Treating other people poorly sends a clear signal to everyone that you can’t be trusted.

In How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie recommends “Giving others a great reputation to live up to.” He was a wise man—raise your expectations of others, and they’ll naturally do their best to satisfy those expectations.

Gall’s Law : all complex systems that work evolved from simpler systems that worked.

If the people working on a project aren’t skilled or excited, the end result will inevitably suffer.

Being mindful of what you’re starting with can help you ensure that the end result of the process meets your expectations.

Everyone generalizes from one example. At least, I do.

Find the inputs that produce the outputs you want, then make them the focus of most of your time and energy. Ruthlessly weed out the rest.