The Personal MBA^TM

Steve Pavlina wrote a very insightful post about resourcefulness today. This passage particularly struck me:

In today’s uncertain economy, people are trying to figure out where to hold their resources/wealth. Should you invest in oil, gold, foreign currency, etc.

Honestly, the best place to invest is yourself. Turn your external assets into internal knowledge and skills. If you want to invest in some external entity, consider investing in one that helps people invest in themselves. When external resources get scarce, it’s time to pump more energy into the internal side, such as by investing in education and training for yourself and others. That will produce far more benefit than owning shiny metal.

Now is the perfect time invest in your knowledge and skills. Start today by picking up a great book. (Or 69 great books.)

If you're new to the Personal MBA, you'll want to check out the manifesto and recommended reading list to see what we're all about.

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Here’s a little story for your consideration:

One day, a man approached JP Morgan, held up an envelope, and said, “Sir, in my hand I hold a guaranteed formula for success, which I will gladly sell to you for $25,000.”

“Sir,” JP Morgan replied, “I do not know what is in the envelope. However, if you show me and I like it, I give you my word as a gentleman that I will pay you what you ask.”

The man agreed to the terms and handed over the envelope. JP Morgan opened it, and extracted a single sheet of paper. He gave it one look and handed the piece of paper back to the gent, pulled out his checkbook, and paid the man the agreed-upon $25,000.

The paper read:

1. Every morning, write a list of the things that need to be done that day.
2. Do them.

(Source unknown; found in a PDF of quotes compiled by Tom Peters.)

A quick PMBA update: the new PMBA reading list is 95% complete. I am in the process of reviewing a few final books and making category-level decisions on some really close calls, as well as writing book descriptions. I’m making progress very quickly now, and I’m really happy with how the list is turning out. Thanks for your patience!

I’m loving the Manager Tools podcast and forum, which I came across recently. The current podcast topic is company strategy and SWOT analysis… worth a listen. (Part 1 | Part 2)

The forums are also stellar. There’s a great conversation going on right now about the positives and negatives of having ex-military managers. Here’s a gem of a quote from one of the members, which he picked up from his manager, a former Marine of 12 years:

“Direct orders are for combat operations, insubordination, new recruits and delivering public policy. For everything else, define the job and let good people do that job. And the best part of it is that not only is that the most effective way to lead, it’s also the easiest.”

There’s also some information on the DiSC assessment, which is a tool for understanding your behavioral styles and preferences when interacting with others. It seems that DiSC is a particularly effective tool to use when providing feedback to your direct reports and peers. I’ve never heard of DiSC before, but it’s certainly on my radar screen now.