Personal MBA

Knowing what’s critically important in every business is the first step in making good business decisions.

In your optimism, forget ye not prudence: changing the world is difficult if you can’t pay the bills.

Your environment will eat your goals and plans for breakfast.
—STEVE PAVLINA, AUTHOR OF PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR SMART PEOPLE AND BLOGGER AT STEVEPAVLINA.COM

If you want to successfully change a behavior, don’t try to change the behavior directly. Change the structure that influences or supports the behavior, and the behavior will change automatically.

Whenever an individual or a business decides that success has been attained, progress stops.
—THOMAS J. WATSON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF IBM

A few moments of quiet meditation every day can be the difference between feeling scared and overwhelmed and feeling in control of your destiny. If you’re interested in learning to meditate, I recommend Mindful-ness in Plain English by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana and Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn.

“You,” the rider, are there to set a direction and reassure the “horse” that it’s safe to proceed.

Ninety percent of this game is half mental.
—YOGI BERRA, FORMER PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL PLAYER AND MALAPROPIST

Never use Leverage unless you’re fully aware of the consequences and are prepared to accept them.

The Time Value of Money is an extremely versatile concept, and a full exploration is beyond the scope of this book. For a more in-depth examination, I recommend picking up The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course in Finance for Nonfinancial Managers by Robert A. Cooke.