Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The following is just my synthesized version of the first chapter. Why? So you know just what you need to know, gain confidence that business fundamentals are master-able and can be self-taught. Improve and acquire new mental models to help you understand how businesses work (see Charles T. Munger) Because the author spent a lot of time synthesizing material from a wide range of sources (there's a lot of junk out there) Because Seth Godin and Lifehacker.com approve (and you read about it on reddit and digg) Because a real business degree is usually a bad investment (there's a study that says so) Because the material taught in most MBA schools is outdated and impractical (think "How to be an Industrial Age Captain of Industry") Sometimes they even teach you the wrong stuff - see "direct incentives" and the book Drive by Dan Pink Also, you don't have to build a behemoth to build a viable business And number-crunching skills are not business-running skills. Create value, flam fraud. And because small businesses are the new big business, holmes. Small, agile and lean companies are going to make your lunch and eat it. But don't expect business schools to change until they feel the burn of mass rejection. The one thing business schools can do is get you an interview Cue Admiral Ackbar "It's a trap!" anti-college debt rant Strum that familiar refrain: If you're smart enough to get into business school, you're smart enough not to need it. What'll you'll learn (p. 32) - how businesses work (ch 2-6) - how people work (ch 7-9) - how systems work (ch 10-12 You won't learn much about managing people (see chapter 9) You won't learn much about managing money (read Accounting Made Simple and Essentials of Accounting, the McGraw-Hill 36 Hour Course in Finance for Nonfinancial Managers and How to Read a Financial Report) You won't learn much about crunching numbers (read Principles of Statistics and Turning Numbers into Knowledge) That's it. You're welcome.