Personal MBA Reading Plan: Beginnings

 The Personal MBA

I have been working on my career and focusing on personal development here lately.  I just received a promotion at work and am now in a position of leadership, so I wanted to move past the basic skills that I learned earning my BA.  I stumbled across the Personal MBA (pMBA) blog/reading list put up annually by Josh Kaufman and knew that I had to incorporate the reading program into my personal development. 

I think this is a great resource to anyone looking to improve leadership and career skills.  I love to read and am a lifelong learner.  But the prospects of attending Grad School to work on my MBA is not something that I can see pursuing right now.  The solution is The Personal MBA reading list. 

The first two books I chose to read aren’t actually on this years list, but they have been on my to read list for quite a while.  First up I read

Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time by Keith Ferrazzi | LibraryThing

This book is a fantastic guide to building relationships and networking (not a dirty word) in life and business.  I had wanted to read this for a while after hearing wonderful things about the book, but I am naturally a wallflower.  I am not one of the power networkers that you picture when you think about books like this.  But that is the key to this book.  Keith Ferrazzi walks you thru how to build meaningful relationships and friendships built around the “What you can do for them” concept instead of a cynical “What can they do for me” outlook.  Mirroring advice by Dale Carnegie, the book puts emphasis on having something to say.  I have to admit that I have been like the students Ferrazzi talks about that walk up after a lecture and say “Wow, that was great,”  and then have nothing to add so I would end up feeling awkward and unsuccessful. 

I highly recommend this book to everyone that needs a little help in building relationships, wether they be for business or otherwise.

Next up on my reading list is The 360 Degree Leader: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization by John C. Maxwell | LibraryThing  I’ll put up a quick recap of the book once I am finished.

I will be working thru the actual pMBA list here in the near future.

A Response to: Get Rich Slowly’s "The Best Recession-Proof Jobs

JD over at Get Rich Slowly (which I follow avidly by-the-way) has a post that interviews several experts to get their opinions on what the Best Recession-Proof Jobs are.    Overall I like the list, and am investigating the fields that were recommended.  But the first contributor, Peter Schiff seems to be missing the mark here. 

Some of the recession proof areas he suggests that I have a problem with:

• Construction-(only if you build bridges and highways.)  The other construction workers are bleeding out there.  The Labor Dept just released new unemployment numbers showing that, “Builders were hit, too. The housing slump had them shedding 49,000 jobs last month.” Source:
  Nation’s Unemployment At 14-Year High : NPR. 
• Agriculture???  Seriously?  So to beat a recession I should compete with immigrant labor (possibly illegal) that is willing to work for wages that are so far below a living wage it should be a crime.  The government would have to step in and lay down/and enforce new regulations demanding a wage floor agribusinesses won’t be able to pay below that will pull American workers into the fields.  Do I even need to link to a picture of Lou Dobbs frothing at the mouth for this one?  I mean he has built an entire career ranting for just this thing and arguing against your position that agriculture will help American workers. 
• Merchant Marine-With the utter lack of production here in American factories we aren’t shipping overseas.  And with a recession causing a decrease in demand for overseas goods it has meant a lot of trouble for the Marine Shipping Industry.  I wish this wasn’t the case.  I have friends that work in freight forwarding and they need this industry to thrive.  But the reality is that we are looking at slowdowns.  NPR: Another Indicator, naked capitalism: Baltic Dry Index Falls Nearly 20% in Two Days, Baltic Exchange Dry Index (BDI) & Freight Rates. 
• How many stories about the pain felt by American Fisherman should we listen to before we toss this one to the side.  Rising Fuel Prices Keep Fishermen On Dry Land : NPR, Map Reveals Extensive Damage to World’s Oceans : NPR.  Go to any town where a fleet is based and you will hear the same horror stories as their industry has taken a beating. 
• And finally Textiles.  This is absolute lunacy!  Come swing by my neck of the woods in Western North Carolina and talk to all the people out of work because textile jobs have been (and are still being) shipped overseas.  Every few days we see new plant closures.  These jobs are gone permanently.  Did you see none of the campaign coverage the last 2 years?  Companies have shipped the jobs overseas to horrible sweat shops where child labor is used and the conditions that leave workers in virtual slavery.  A worker will earn maybe $2 a day, doesn’t have benefits, no overtime or labor protections.  I just can’t see companies bringing jobs back to America en masse and losing these “benefits” because of a downturn in demand for clothes.  People who aren’t buying cheap clothes because they have no money won’t start buying expensive clothes from American factories.  Speaking of cheap clothes… What is one of the hottest retailers in America right now?  The Goodwill.  NC & the Global Economy > Textiles > Overview, WBTV 3 | Kings Mountain textile plant closing, WBTV 3 News,  Lancaster company closing; 114 jobs lost, ReviewJournal.com – STYLISH SAVINGS: A SECOND LOOK, Pinching pennies, With economy unraveling, secondhand stores are suddenly chic – MarketWatch,

I said it before, the rest of the article struck me as good and based on sound judgements.  But Mr. Schiff just got under my skin.  As someone struggling in this economy, his recommended industries were just laughable.  Thanks for letting me rant.

(Picture: megananne)