Personal MBA & Value Creation

Personal MBA & Value Creation

Hey, there!

Today we're going to talk about value creation. And to do that, we're looking at the personal MBA a book by Josh Kaufman. It's the 10-year anniversary of the personal MBA. And we're going to walk through some of the top lessons and then sort of add pieces as to how it can fit in and work well with kids.



In order for a business to exist it must create value for people. The number one thing is value creation. Should I say it one more time? Nah. 

We will let Paul Graham the founder of Y Combinator tell you. Y Combinator is one of the most successful accelerators ever. All of the big tech companies that you can think of went through YC. 

Paul has written many essays that are really interesting and you can, you can find them all online. The one of his most famous things is this quote right here. Make something people want.... There's nothing more valuable than an unmet need that is just becoming fixable. If you find something broken that you can fix for a lot of people. You've found a gold mine.

That's really what we're trying to teach kids to do. We're teaching them to make something that people actually need or want. You have to make a product that helps people. 


Every successful business creates something of value. The world is full of opportunities to make other people's lives better in some way. And your job as a business person is to identify things that people don't have enough of, then find a way to provide them.

So, what Kaufman's saying here is. You actually need to be solving a problem for someone,


And it shows up in this sort of form of value creation.

We teach kids to focus on why and when people buy cards. We help them to understand how to find the people that are in need of a card. 

They then use their creativity and resources to make beautiful cards for people.  Kids also create value by reminding folks that events are coming up, and also saving a trip to the store. 

And we found this to be one of the biggest value propositions that kids can offer is that they're actually reminding folks of important days in their lives. So. The value you create can take on several different forms. But the purpose is always the same. To make someone else's life a little bit better.

Without value creation a business. Can't exist. You can't transact with others. Unless you have something valuable to trade. The best businesses in the world are the ones that create the most value for other people. Some businesses thrive by providing a little value to many and others focused on providing a lot of value to only a few people.

Regardless, the more real value you can create for other people. The betters. Your business. We'll be and the more prosperous you'll become. Now, like I said, we're reading all of this, out of the personal MBA. But you can actually find it all on the personal mba.com website. And please note that the personal MBA is not affiliated with Beeso in anyway. 

But, I do think that it is a great resources for anyone that wants to learn more about business.  


Josh argues that there's five parts of every business. Broadly speaking here are the five, pieces of a business that he points out. Number

1), the business needs to create and deliver something of value. That's what we just talked about, that other

2) people want or need.

3) At a price they're willing to pay.

4) In a way that satisfies the customer's needs and expectations.

5) So that the business. Brings in enough profit to make it worthwhile for the owners to continue operation.

Boom! That's everything you need right there. That is what a business is and what it has to do in order to continue.


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