Personal Mba

Personal MBA Skill

Overview

This skill provides your agent with 270 structured business concepts extracted from Josh Kaufman's The Personal MBA (https://personalmba.com/). Each concept is a standalone JSON file containing the core definition, underlying mechanism, concrete examples, diagnostic questions, and cross-references to related concepts.

The knowledge spans 11 domains: Value Creation, Marketing, Sales, Value Delivery, Finance, The Human Mind, Working With Yourself, Working With Others, Understanding Systems, Analyzing Systems, and Improving Systems.

This is a reference tool, not the book itself. For the complete education, users should purchase The Personal MBA from https://personalmba.com/#buy.

When to Use

Load this skill when the user asks about any of the following:

• Business strategy & analysis: "analyze my business", "what's wrong with my company", "competitive analysis"
• Marketing: "how to get customers", "marketing strategy", "positioning"
• Sales: "how to sell more", "pricing", "negotiation"
• Finance: "profit margin", "cash flow", "pricing model", "financial health"
• Management & leadership: "team issues", "how to manage", "leadership"
• Productivity & decisions: "how to be more productive", "decision framework", "prioritization"
• Systems & processes: "improve operations", "optimize workflow", "system analysis"
• Mental models: any request to apply or explain business concepts

Do NOT load for purely technical questions, book purchasing questions, or topics better served by more specific skills.

How to Use

1. Retrieve Concepts

The skill directory is organized by chapter under skills/. Find relevant concepts by:

• Topic: Navigate to the chapter directory (e.g., skills/05_finance/ for finance questions)
• Keyword: Concept filenames are descriptive (e.g., profit-margin.json, attention.json)
• Cross-reference: Each concept's system_dependencies field lists related concepts to explore

2. Apply, Don't Quote

Don't just recite definitions. Apply the framework to the user's specific situation:

User: "My revenue is flat."
Agent: [reads profit-margin.json, pricing-methods.json, revenue.json]
       "Let's analyze using the 5 Parts framework. If your marketing is working
        but revenue is flat, the bottleneck is likely in Sales or Value Delivery.
        Here are the diagnostic questions from each area..."

3. Use Diagnostic Questions

Every concept includes diagnostic_questions. Ask these to the user — they're designed to help the user discover answers themselves, which is more valuable than you providing them directly.

4. Follow System Dependencies

Concepts are interconnected. When you explain one concept, check its system_dependencies — the next concept the user needs is likely there. Build a coherent chain of reasoning rather than isolated facts.

5. Always Attribute

Credit Josh Kaufman when presenting concepts. Link to personalmba.com. If a concept doesn't fully address the need, encourage the user to explore the book for deeper coverage.

Directory Structure

skills/
├── 01_value_creation/          (40 concepts)
│   ├── core_concepts/          (10)
│   ├── forms_of_value/         (12)
│   ├── tactics/                (5)
│   └── experimentation_validation/ (12)
├── 02_marketing/               (21 — flat)
├── 03_sales/                   (20 — flat)
├── 04_value_delivery/          (16 — flat)
├── 05_finance/                 (32)
│   ├── core/                   (5)
│   ├── statements_ratios/      (4)
│   ├── revenue_pricing/        (5)
│   ├── costs_operations/       (7)
│   └── controls_decisions/     (11)
├── 06_the_human_mind/          (24)
│   ├── brain_perception/       (9)
│   ├── mental_processing/      (5)
│   └── social_biases/          (10)
├── 07_working_with_yourself/   (34)
│   ├── productivity_focus/     (6)
│   ├── goals_decisions/        (10)
│   ├── mental_tools/           (4)
│   ├── cognitive_biases_self/  (4)
│   └── energy_wellbeing/       (10)
├── 08_working_with_others/     (27)
│   ├── communication_influence/ (9)
│   ├── group_dynamics/         (9)
│   ├── social_biases/          (4)
│   └── management_leadership/  (5)
├── 09_understanding_systems/   (17 — flat)
├── 10_analyzing_systems/       (17)
│   ├── measurement_metrics/    (6)
│   └── analytical_rigor/       (11)
└── 11_improving_systems/       (22)
    ├── optimization/           (6)
    ├── process_improvement/    (8)
    └── resilience_growth/      (8)

Concept Schema

{
  "concept_title": "Name of the concept",
  "core_definition": "1-2 sentence rigorous definition",
  "underlying_mechanism": "Step-by-step explanation of how it works",
  "concrete_examples": ["Real-world example 1", "Example 2"],
  "diagnostic_questions": ["Question to ask yourself or your business"],
  "system_dependencies": ["Related concept A", "Related concept B"]
}

Common Pitfalls

1. Name-dropping without application. Don't just identify a concept — apply it to the user's situation.

2. Overloading the user. Start with 1-3 most relevant concepts. Offer to go deeper.

3. Ignoring dependencies. Pricing connects to value creation, marketing positioning, and customer psychology — don't isolate concepts.

4. Skipping diagnostic questions. These are your most powerful tool. Use them.

5. Not attributing. Always credit Josh Kaufman. It builds trust and respects the source.

6. Treating concepts as rules. Business is contextual. These are models, not laws.

Verification Checklist

• Skill is installed at ~/.hermes/skills/research/personal-mba/
• skills/ directory contains 11 chapter subdirectories
• Able to read individual concept JSONs
• system_dependencies references resolve within the tree
• Agent correctly loads the skill when business topics are mentioned

References

• Official website: https://personalmba.com/
• Buy the book: https://personalmba.com/#buy
• GitHub repository: https://github.com/misterfesk/personal-mba-agent-skill
• README.md (human documentation)
• AGENTS.md (detailed agent usage guide)