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The Personal MBA ™

The 99 Best Business Books: The Personal
MBA Recommended Reading List
by Josh Kaufman

MBA programs don’t have a monopoly on advanced business knowledge: you can teach
yourself everything you need to know to succeed in life and at work. The Personal MBA features
the very best business books available, based on thousands of hours of research. So skip b-school
and the $150,000 loan: you can get a world-class business education simply by reading these books.

This page lists all PMBA-recommended books and resources for easy printing, bookmarking,
and reference. For more information about the Personal MBA and book selection criteria, read the
manifesto, or see a list of the 2010 changes. Purchasing books through this website helps support the
PMBA’s ongoing research.

Here are the 99 business books the Personal MBA officially recommends… click on the title to read
a detailed description of each book and why it’s important.

NEW: The Comprehensive Overview

The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business by Josh Kaufman. While this is not an official
part of the list, I wrote this book to summarize the most important concepts you’ll learn by reading
the books on this list. If you’re new to the Personal MBA, I strongly recommend reading this book
first.

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Productivity & Effectiveness

10 Days to Faster Reading by Abby Marks-Beale

StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath

Getting Things Done by David Allen

The Power of Less by Leo Babauta

The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch

Bit Literacy by Mark Hurst

The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr & Tony Schwartz

The Human Mind

Brain Rules by John Medina

Making Sense of Behavior by William T. Powers

Driven by Paul Lawrence and Nitin Nohria

Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzales

Communication

On Writing Well by William Zinsser

Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds

Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath

The Copywriter’s Handbook by Robert Bly

Show Me The Numbers by Stephen Few

Influence

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini

Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson et al

The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

Decision-Making

Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions by Gary Klein

Smart Choices by John S. Hammond et al

The Path of Least Resistance by Robert Fritz

Ethics for the Real World by Ronald Howard & Clinton Korver

Creativity & Innovation

The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp

Myths of Innovation by Scott Berkun

Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter F. Drucker

Project Management

Making Things Happen by Scott Berkun

Results Without Authority by Tom Kendrick

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Opportunity Identification

The New Business Road Test by John Mullins

How to Make Millions with Your Ideas by Dan Kennedy

Entrepreneurship

Ready, Fire, Aim by Michael Masterson

The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki

The Knack by Norm Brodsky & Bo Burlingham

The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss

Escape from Cubicle Nation by Pamela Slim

Bankable Business Plans by Edward Rogoff

Value-Creation & Design

Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank

The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman

Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, and Jill Butler

Marketing

All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin

Permission Marketing by Seth Godin

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries & Jack Trout

Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got by Jay Abraham

Sales

The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes

Value-Based Fees by Alan Weiss

SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham

The Sales Bible by Jeffrey Gitomer

Value-Delivery

Indispensable by Joe Calloway

The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt

Lean Thinking by James Womack and Daniel Jones

Negotiation

Bargaining For Advantage by G. Richard Shell

3-D Negotiation by David A. Lax and James K. Sebenius

The Partnership Charter by David Gage

Management

First, Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman

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12: The Elements of Great Managing by Rodd Wagner & James Harter

Growing Great Employees by Erika Andersen

Hiring Smart by Pierre Mornell

The Essential Drucker by Peter F. Drucker

Leadership

Tribes by Seth Godin

Total Leadership by Stewart Friedman

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith

The New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan by George Bradt et al

The Halo Effect by Phil Rosenzweig

Finance & Accounting

Accounting Made Simple by Mike Piper

Essentials of Accounting (9th Edition) by Robert N. Anthony and Leslie K. Breitner

The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course in Finance by Robert A. Cooke

How to Read a Financial Report by John A. Tracy

Systems

Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows

Work the System by Sam Carpenter

Learning from the Future by Liam Fahey & Robert Randall

Analysis

Turning Numbers Into Knowledge by Jonathan Koomey

Marketing Metrics by Paul W. Farris et al

Web Analytics: An Hour a Day by Avinash Kaushik

The Economist Numbers Guide by Richard Stuteley

Statistics

How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff

Principles of Statistics by M.G. Bulmer

Corporate Skills

The Unwritten Laws of Business by W.J. King

The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker

The Simplicity Survival Handbook by Bill Jensen

Corporate Strategy

Purpose: The Starting Point of Great Companies by Nikos Mourkogiannis

Competitive Strategy by Michael Porter

Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne

Green to Gold by Daniel Esty & Andrew Winston

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Seeing What’s Next by Clayton M. Christensen, Erik A. Roth, Scott D. Anthony

Consulting

Getting Started in Consulting by Alan Weiss

Secrets of Consulting by Gerald M. Weinberg

Personal Finance

Your Money or Your Life by Joel Dominguez & Vicki Robin

I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi

The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley & William Danko

Fail-Safe Investing by Harry Browne

It’s Not About The Money by Brent Kessel

Work Less, Live More by Bob Clyatt

Personal Development

Self-Directed Behavior by David L. Watson & Roland G. Tharp

Personal Development for Smart People by Steve Pavlina

Re-Create Your Life by Morty Lefkoe

Lead the Field by Earl Nightingale

The Art of Exceptional Living by Jim Rohn

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A World-Class Business Education in a Single

Volume
Master the most important concepts in business with Josh Kaufman, author of The
Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business...

About the Personal MBA

Master the fundamentals, hone your business instincts, and save a fortune in
tuition. MBA programs don't have a monopoly on business knowledge: the

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Personal MBA will help you teach yourself everything you need to know to
succeed in life and at work.
Read the manifesto...

Josh Kaufman is an independent business teacher, education activist, and

author of the Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business, which will be
published by Portfolio on December 30, 2010. About Josh Kaufman...

Get Free Book Summaries & Training Now

Email:

Click Here

We respect your email privacy

New to the Personal MBA?

These articles will help you discover what the Personal MBA is all about:

 The PMBA Manifesto - why business self-education beats business school.

 PMBA Recommended Reading List - a list of all of the books officially recommended
by the Personal MBA.
 The PMBA Community - discuss business concepts with PMBA members from
around the world in our free private forum.

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http://personalmba.com/best-business-books/ 10/5/2010
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 Need more time to read? Get rid of your TV - going without TV for 30 days can
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