The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman - Quotations

Question 1

Clear language engenders ___. And ___ is the most important ___.

Answer 1

clear thought

clear thought

benefit of education

Question 2

Life’s tough, ___.

Answer 2

It’s tougher if you are stupid

Question 3

As to methods, there may be a million and then some, but ___.

Answer 3

principles are few

Question 4

The man who grasps principles can ___.

Answer 4

Successfully select his own methods

Question 5

People always overstimate how ___.

Answer 5

complex business is

Question 6

This isn’t rocket science - we’ve chosen ___.

Answer 6

One of the world’s most simple professions.

Question 7

Knowing what is critically important in every business ___.

Answer 7

is the first step in making good business decisions

Question 8

the limits of my language ___

Answer 8

are the limits of my world

Question 9

mastering fundamentals…

Answer 9

can take you surprisingly far

Question 10

uncertainty is an… but…

Answer 10

is an ever-present but manageable part of business

Question 11

risks…

Answer 11

can be minimized

Question 12

a written plan is secondary to …

Answer 12

understanding the critical functions of your business

Question 13

self-eduation…

Answer 13

is the only kind of education there is

Question 14

you are always…

Answer 14

self-taught

Question 15

My minor obsession is… and that is yin/yang couplet of …

Answer 15

business

management/investing

Question 16

searching for one more tidbit that would help me…

Answer 16

better understand how the business world worked and how to work it

Question 17

knowledge broken down is…

Answer 17

know edge or know ledge

Question 18

if there is one thing I am good at…

Answer 18

taking huge amounts of information and distilling it down to the essentials

Question 19

distill

Answer 19

purify (a liquid) by vaporizing it, then condensing it by cooling the vapor and collecting the resulting liquid

extract the essential meaning or most important aspects of

Question 20

I think it’s undeniably true that the human brain works in …

The trick is to have your brain … because it understands … the ones that do the most work

Answer 20

models

work better than the other person’s brain

the most fundamental models

Question 21

Charlie can analyze and evaluate any kind of deal faster and more accurately than any man alive. He sees…

Answer 21

any valid weaknesses in 60 seconds

Question 22

what you need is a …

Answer 22

latticework of mental models

Question 23

Every business fundamentally relies on two factors: …

Answer 23

people and systems

Question 24

The very substance of the ambitious is…

Answer 24

merely the shadow of a dream

Question 25

who goeth a borrowing...

Answer 25

goeth a sorrowing... a fool and his money are soon parted

Question 26

any technique, however worthy and desireable, ...

Answer 26

becomes a disease when the mind is obsessed with it

Question 27

who is Frederick Winslow Taylor?

Answer 27

the pioneer of scientific management

Question 28

beware of geeks ...

Answer 28

bearing formulas

Question 29

article: Wired"recipe for disaster: the forumal tha tkile wall street

Question 30

many businesses have de-emphasized value creation and operation in favor of ...

Answer 30

finance and quantitative analysis

Question 31

when financial wizadry and short-term returns trump ...

Answer 31

prudence and long-term value creation, customer and employees suffer

Question 32

Institutions will try to preserve the ...

Answer 32

problem to which they are the solution

Question 33

speed, flexibility, and ingenuity are...

Answer 33

the qualities that successful businesses rely on today

Question 34

If you are good enough to get in, ..

Answer 34

you obviously have enough talent to do well regardless

Question 35

you can have anything you want ...

Answer 35

as long as you are willing to pay the price

Question 36

the quickest and easist way to screw up your life is

Answer 36

to take on too much debt

Question 37

business is about the... and... to... - management and leadership are a...

Answer 37

profitable creation and delivery of valuable offers to paying customers - management and leadership are a simple means to this end

Question 38

all truly wise thoughts have been thought already....

Answer 38

a thousands of times

Question 39

but to make them truly ours, we must think them... until they...

Answer 39

over again honestly, until they take root in our personal experience (re: all great thoughts)

Question 40

there nothing ...

Answer 40

more valuable than an unmet need that is becoming fixable

Question 41

if you find something broken that you can fix for a lot of people...

Answer 41

you have found a goldmine

Question 42

Make something people want... there's nothing more valuable than ...

Answer 42

an unmet need that is just becoming fixable

Question 43

Business is a .... , everything else is just a hobby

Answer 43

repeatable process that makes money

Question 44

Don't go around saying the world... The world....

Answer 44

owes you a living owes you nothing, it was here first

Question 45

Clayton's ERG theory

Answer 45

Existence, Relationship, and Growth in that order

Question 46

Sof often people are working hard at ... Working on the ... is probably more important than...

Answer 46

the wrong thing right thing working hard

Question 47

setting up the ... requires...

Answer 47

systems persistence and dedication

Question 48

finding that market is mostly a matter of ...

Answer 48

persistence and active exploration

Question 49

the trick is to find an active ... that...

Answer 49

market interests you

Question 50

pay very close attention to...

Answer 50

the things you keep coming back to

Question 51

Building or finishing anything is...

Answer 51

mostly a matter of starting over and over again

Question 52

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