--- title: The Personal MBA date: "2006-04-07T12:00:00Z" categories: - top-10-lists wp_id: 368 --- [The Personal MBA](http://www.joshkaufman.net/personalmba/). John Kaufman says reading (**and practicing**) these 42 books should be as good as any MBA (and that an MBA is, perhaps excessively, expensive). Some of these books are worth a read in any case. **Master Yourself** - [Mastery](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0452267560/?tag=sanand-20) by George Leonard - [Now, Discover Your Strengths](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743201140/?tag=sanand-20) by Marcus Buckingham & Donald O. Clifton **Manage Your Life and Work** - [Getting Things Done](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0142000280/?tag=sanand-20) by David Allen - [The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743269519/?tag=sanand-20) by Stephen Covey **Learn the Fundamentals** - [What the CEO Wants You to Know](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0609608398/?tag=sanand-20) by Ram Charan - [Profitable Growth Is Everyone's Business](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400051525/?tag=sanand-20) by Ram Charan **Strategic Thinking** - [On Competition](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0875847951/?tag=sanand-20) by Michael Porter - [Blue Ocean Strategy](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591396190/?tag=sanand-20) by W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne **The Only Thing Constant is Change** - [Seeing What's Next](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591391857/?tag=sanand-20) by Clayton M. Christensen, Erik A. Roth, Scott D. Anthony - [Re-imagine](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/078949647X/?tag=sanand-20) by Tom Peters **Masters of Management** - [The Essential Drucker](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006093574X/?tag=sanand-20) by Peter Drucker - [First, Break All the Rules](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684852861/?tag=sanand-20) by Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman **The Finest Minds in Business** - [The Essays of Warren Buffett](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0966446119/?tag=sanand-20) by Warren Buffett & Lawrence Cunningham - [Poor Charlie's Almanack](http://www.poorcharliesalmanack.com/) by Charlie Munger & Peter Kaufman **Dollars on the Books** - [The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course in Finance for Nonfinancial Managers](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071425462/?tag=sanand-20) by Robert A. Cooke - [Essentials of Accounting, 8th edition](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0131025716/?tag=sanand-20) by Robert Anthony, Leslie Pearlman **Numbers and Negotiations** - [How to Read a Financial Report](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0471478679/?tag=sanand-20) by John A. Tracy - [Getting To Yes](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140157352/?tag=sanand-20) by Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton **Operational Effectiveness** - [The Goal](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0884271781/?tag=sanand-20) by Eliyahu Goldratt & Jeff Cox - [Lean Thinking](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743249275/?tag=sanand-20) by James Womack & Daniel Jones **Form and Function** - [The Substance of Style](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060186321/?tag=sanand-20) by Virginia Postrel - [The Design of Everyday Things](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465067107/?tag=sanand-20) by Donald A. Norman **Project Management and Marketing** - [The Art of Project Management](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596007868/?tag=sanand-20) by Scott Berkun - [The Marketing Playbook](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591840384/?tag=sanand-20) by John Zagula & Richard Tong **Do Your Own Thing** - [The Art of the Start](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591840562/?tag=sanand-20) by Guy Kawasaki - [The Bootstrapper's Bible](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005R2F8/?tag=sanand-20) by Seth Godin **Speak Your Mind** - [On Writing Well](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060006641/?tag=sanand-20) by William Zinsser - [Flawless Consulting](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0787948039/?tag=sanand-20) by Peter Block **The Delicate Art of Human Relations** - [How To Win Friends and Influence People](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671723650/?tag=sanand-20) by Dale Carnegie - [Crucial Conversations](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071401946/?tag=sanand-20) by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler **Sell, Sell, Sell!** - [The Little Red Book of Selling](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1885167601/?tag=sanand-20) by Jeffrey Gitomer - [Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0688128165/?tag=sanand-20) by Robert B. Cialdini **Economics and Worldviews** - [Economics in One Lesson](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0517548232/?tag=sanand-20) by Henry Hazlitt - [The Economist](http://www.economist.com/) **Businesses, Past and Present** - [American Business, 1920-2000](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0882959859/?tag=sanand-20) by Thomas McCraw, John Franklin, A. S. Eisenstadt - [Brand New](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1578512212/?tag=sanand-20) by Nancy F. Koehn **Rules and Morals** - [Law 101](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195132653/?tag=sanand-20) by Jay M. Feinman - [A Primer on Business Ethics](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0742513890/?tag=sanand-20) by Tibor Machan & James Chesher **Analyze This** - [The 80/20 Principle](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385491743/?tag=sanand-20) by Richard Koch - [Principles of Statistics](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0486637603/?tag=sanand-20) by M.G. Bulmer **Voices of Experience** - [The Little Book of Business Wisdom](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0471369799/?tag=sanand-20) by Peter Krass (Editor) - [Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management](http://wwwxt.raytheon.com/communications/whs_rules/) by Bill Swanson