Unconventional Meet-up in Winnipeg and Do You Need School?

Last week I got a chance to talk with Josh Kaufman about his new book, The Personal MBA. The book challenges the assumption that you need an expensive business school education to succeed in business. Instead, he’s been working with thousands of people to make it possible to get an MBA-quality education–without the tuition costs.

I often write about education issues on this blog, and while I do think there are some good values to education, there is a great deal broken with the system. Josh and I recorded our conversation and you can listen in for some unconventional ideas for how you might be able to learn better and save tens of thousands of dollars:

Click here to listen to the full interview (26 minutes)

If you’re short on time, here are my notes from the call, so you can jump into sections that interest you:

0:00 – Introduction
2:50 – “Needing” an MBA to become an entrepreneur is ridiculous
4:45 – Difference between education and credentials
5:50 – Social filters versus knowledge
6:45 – University education versus university experience
9:15 – Josh and I debate the role of discipline
13:45 – The 5 Parts of any business
14:45 – How to overcome isolation in self-education
17:00 РBootstrapping your resum̩ via nonprofits
18:15 – Josh’s advice for people who want the certification of a diploma
20:00 – The opportunity costs of school
21:15 – “Real world results always speak louder than credentials”
22:50 – Why this applies to a lot more than business school
24:45 – Closing thoughts from Josh on unconventional education

If you’re interested in Josh, you can visit his website here, or get a copy of The Personal MBA.

Unconventional Book Tour – Meet Chris Guillebeau and I

Chris Guillebeau, who writes for the excellent blog The Art of Nonconformity, has been doing a rather unconventional book tour which involves visiting all 50 states and 10 provinces in Canada.

For my readers here in Winnipeg, Manitoba, I’m co-hosting this stop on the tour. Both Chris and myself will be at the Chapters near Polo Park at 7pm this upcoming Tuesday (Jan 18th). I hope to see some of you there!

You can also get a copy of Chris’s book, The Art of Nonconformity.