I am a scientist in my early 30s. I got my PhD from U of Kentucky. I then worked in a start-up and a large biotech, and had 3 kids in the mean time. I will get my MBA from U of South Florida this year. School is always easy for me. And my wife and family have been really supportive and give me enough time to do all that while enjoying my kids. I am really lucky.
But not everyone is so lucky……
My friend Joe is an excenllent scientist in his early 30s. He enrolled in a really good MBA school to futher his career in science, and then his wife get pregnant ..with twins. Joe have no choice by quit his MBA.
Billy is another excellent scientist in his early 30s. He work in a large Biotech company for almost 10 years. He want to get an MBA since his BS degree is not able to help him to get promotion. However, he just had his fist kid last year, and he play in a band. Something have to give, he have to chose his passion in music or MBA. Billy choose music.
3 people, same stage of life. Why the two have to give up their MBA? Life is not fair… The need an audible.
Lasr year, I want to solidfy the knowledge my MBA program. I was looking for a list of good business books. I found that on Josh Kaufman’s Personal MBA blog. Here is the briefing:
“The Personal MBA (PMBA) is an experiment in educational entrepreneurism… Just set aside some dedicated reading time, pick up a good book, learn as much as you can, and go out and make great things happen… the core of the PMBA is a list of 42 books and periodicals. By investing time and effort in using these resources, you will progressively develop a greater understanding of business and increase your effectiveness at work… If you decide not to go to business school, the Personal MBA is a low cost way to educate yourself about business. (Even business school graduates can benefit greatly from reading these books.)”
It is a great concept. Only one problem: I don’t want to read all of these freaking books (some of them are freaking text book). As I look through these book, I found out some of them are audio book. I thought, “ if I jus tlisten to these books, it will save me tons of time”. Here is the activities that I can do while I am “reading”. It is 5 times more effiecnt that regular books.
John Richardson has the same experience as me in his MBA on the run blog. He said, “After looking at the list of books and the probable time commitment (for PMBA), I considered doing this.…(but) I’m already time strapped and a commitment this big may not fit.” So, Jon decided to listen to whole bunch of audio books while he is running. To keep his progress, “as each book is completed you can read about it here…(his blog). Not only the book report but the business experience and an interview with someone in the business field.”I though what a great idea! I bet Jon and Zach can really used this audible & audio books. We can be at the gym, cooking, changing diaper while you are listening to all of these books. But the problem with MBA on the Run is that it is a blog full of book reports. It is not structural. Thus, I did some research into the curriculum of famous MBA programs (such as U of South Florida, Washington U and Harvard). I then create a curriculum and method for to go through these list of books and obtain the knowledge it withhold! I hope this can provide an audible for someone’s life.
