Dad of Divas' Reviews: Book Review

Monday, August 1, 2011

Book Review - Hard Knocks MBA

About the Book

David Miller’s Hard Knocks MBA: The Search for Job Satisfaction and Business Success offers readers important lessons on the diligence, determination, focus, and persistence necessary to be successful in business. In “Go to the Mattresses,” Miller highlights that in building and maintaining a successful business that “Business is war and you have to play to win,” a war in which you must “bring your A-game” every day, going in early, staying late, and being proud to do it.

Miller teaches us the art of war on the battlefield of business, recalling Andrew Grove’s warning that “‘Only the paranoid survive’” teaching us “You have to expect the unexpected” by keeping an eye on your competitors and assuming that “your competitor is right around the corner, ready to take advantage of any mistake you make.” Hard Knocks MBA is an instructive and motivating tool for entrepreneurs, teaching them how to be the best at what they do and to take pride in being the best.

He prompts readers with thought-provoking and stimulating tenets, reminding them that “Playing a game not to lose is an entirely different mindset than playing a game to win.” Since the subprime mortgage crisis and subsequent recession, many of us have struggled to survive, happy to coast at survival level rather than making our way back up the economic ladder. Miller gives readers the mental preparedness and steps to becoming successful rather than merely existing, wasting our workday mindlessly checking Facebook and spending the first half of the day planning lunch and second half of the day planning dinner.

In a nation that is plunged in recession and socioeconomic strife, Miller re-energizes entrepreneurial minds and gives them the arsenal of knowledge and motivation necessary to rebuild their wealth and their businesses. Through important lessons on habits that make you rich, avoiding habits that make you bankrupt, and forming an infallible business action plan, David Miller inspires a nation that has given up on its dreams, stimulating an era of re-growth.

My Take on the Book

If you are working in the business world now, you should pick up this book. This book looks at doing business through a different lens, and allows you to take on the role of aggressor (per se) and to go to the limit for what you know to be important and to be necessary to be successful in business today and in the future.

What I loved about this book was its' fresh approach. It did not take a wait and see attitude, but instead has you jump right in and get dirty. It also encourages you to not be afraid of the outcome, but to be strategic and to take the chances and risks that you need to to get to where you want to be.

This book is definitely motivational and inspiring and will push you forward in the right direction!

All opinions expressed in this review are my own and not influenced in any way by the company. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider. Please refer to this site's Disclaimer for more information. I have been compensated or given a product free of charge, but that does not impact my views or opinions.