I asked my assistant to make an executive summary, which I share with you here:

1. Reading People
   
   1. Opens with anecdote about two people; he met Nixon twice--the fact that he used several of the same phrases both times made the interactions feel staged--and represented Doug Sanders, a golfer, who despite a “hustler” persona paid commission in cash for an event McCormack wasn’t aware he had attended
      
      1. These interactions were, in retrospect, representative of both individuals’ personalities
         
   2. Goes further into advice on interacting with people, which can basically be condensed to:
      
      1. Trust your gut, but be rational
         
      2. Listen to and observe people; read between the lines
         
      3. Appeal to and be aware of ego (others’ and your own)
         
      4. Get others’ opinions of people you are doing business with
         
   3. He also has a section on “Golf Course Insight” which is similar to his other advice, but in more anecdotal form.
      
   4. “Seven Step Plan” of reading people:
      
      1. Listen aggressively
         
      2. Observe aggressively
         
      3. Talk less
         
      4. Take a second look at first impressions
         
      5. Take time to use what you’ve learned
         
      6. Be discreet
         
      7. Be detached
         
2. Creating Impressions
   
   1. Discussion of what people might expect from you going into a meeting and when it can be advantageous to confirm/disprove that
      
   2. Written correspondence should be formal but not stiff, and should be personalized; otherwise it feels like spam
      
   3. Associate with people who reflect well on you
      
   4. Dress well (he quotes Chanel here: “if a woman is poorly dressed you notice the dress; if she’s impeccably dressed you notice the woman”)
      
   5. Be punctual and straightforward
      
   6. Be friendly and polite, and flatter strategically
      
   7. Subsection: “The most important personal asset in business
      
      1. “Obviously the real answer is common sense. But if you don’t have it already, you probably never will… sense aside, then, the most important asset is a sense of humor.”
         

From audiobook summary:
Prologue:
“Street smarts” that one should know but that can’t be taught in a classroom
Business is a “duel”—to win, must stay one step ahead of competitors
Innovation, creativity, and intuition are as important as technicalities that are taught in MBA programs

Part 1: People
Chap 1: Reading people
    Must understand potential and current clients—what they want, are motivated by, etc.
    Can deduce this from observation; must get their guards down and make them feel comfortable if they are to behave and speak sincerely
    Important clues—posture, tone, facial expression, etc.
    Listen more, talk less
    First impressions are important; convey warmth, competence, and detachment
    Don’t let people know how much you know about them, and be selective with what you let them know you know and in what manner you do this
    
Chap. 2: Creating impressions
    How to build a good reputation
    Many small, sincere gestures are better than a few grand ones that could be interpreted as phony
    Secretary/receptionist should interact with clients in a way that mirrors desired image—if your receptionist is rude, that reflects poorly on you
    Dress well—people stereotype based on clothing; use that to your advantage
    Keep promises and go the extra mile to be nice, compromise, etc.
    Common sense and humor are most important; putting people at ease and maintaining perspective

Chap 3: Taking the edge
    Take advantage of other people’s perceptions of you
    Take initiative in social and business situations, but don’t rush or act without thinking
    Take all possible opportunities—unknown which will pay off, so invest broadly (but wisely)
    Discipline—know when to act, and when to wait

Chap 4: Getting ahead
    Some people fail and some succeed—this is because they know (or don’t know) what they are capable of, and act accordingly
    Contextualize failure and success
    Say “I don’t know,” “I need help,” and “I was wrong”—shows humility and sincerity
    
Part 2: Sales and negotiation
Chap 5: The problem of selling
    When selling, buyer and seller are unconsciously and consciously weighing pros and cons of transaction
    Salesmanship is very important even in non-sales contexts

Chap 6:Timing
    Most ideas that don’t succeed don’t because they were timed badly, not because they were necessarily bad ideas
    Be patient, try multiple times, and wait for good opportunities
    Renew contracts when people are happy, not when deal is expiring
    Be efficient with people’s time

Chap 7: Silence
    Be comfortable with silences; they force/allow other party to talk without making you overshare
    End meetings on positive note
    
Chap 8: Marketability
    Connection between product/service and consumer
    Market according to consumer perception of product
    Be enthusiastic about product
    Anticipate objections
    Consider what they want and emphasize those facets of product
    Imaging—get people to associate certain traits that they value with the product, to increase its value
    
Chap 9: Stratagems
    Sell with different strategies depending on situation
    Must be able to answer the questions: 1) what is the customer’s need? 2) who is making the purchase?
    Make customer feel like they are smart for choosing your product
    Make them feel like the product is already theirs
    Sell directly and alone to the highest-authority person—one-on-one deals allow for more personalized sales tactics
    Limit choices—alternatives can compromise perceptions of your product
    Don’t overuse visual aids—not necessary for quality product

Chap 10: Negotiating
    Getting people to buy is more complicated than establishing terms of purchase
    5 principles:
        What is the exact thing for sale?
        When will the buyer benefit from their purchase?
        Where can and can’t buyer use the product?
        How unique is the product?
        How much time and money will this purchase save or consume?
    Let buyer make first offer—it shows what they think product is worth. If the offer is high, accepting it makes them feel like they are making a deal
    Don’t take low offers personally, and ask why if they offer something that doesn’t benefit you—if they aren’t deliberately doing this, they will make better offer
    Present deal as mutually beneficial
    If you know their deadline, make the deal feel urgent
    Stick to position and know whether you are ahead or behind
    Will you use legal contract or informal agreement? Both have pros and cons based on trust between participants, size of deal, etc.

Part 3: Running a business
Chap 11: Building a business
    Be aware of all steps between current state of business and desired state of business
    Don’t grow business beyond what management can handle
    Diversify and expand after management is stable
    
Chap 12: Staying in business
    Business becomes harder to manage as it grows
    Systems change and things that may work early on won’t work later/vice versa
    Maintain structure and make employees feel necessary
    Don’t let policy become dogma; evolve it with company’s progress
    Balance between successful precedent and innovation
    Delegate tasks
    Balance flexibility and consistency
    Pay salaries and bonuses according to employee value; low wage and high bonus at beginning to incentivize them, and make them aware of dollar value of benefits—increase salary with experience so that long-term employees feel that they are progressing
    Criticize and praise in balance
    Give employees agency in their tasks
    Prioritize long-term over short-term gains; quality is important and can be seen as an investment in your own business’s long-term success
    
Chap 13: Getting things done
    Be organized and in control of schedule
    Plan for the future
    Record details simply but accurately
    Write down ideas as they come up
    Plan next day at the end of each day; expand to weekly, monthly, and yearly plans
    Adhere to schedule
    Account for human behavior of colleagues and associates
    Make calls, rather than receiving them, and end calls as soon as objective is accomplished
    Be aware of own habits and behaviors, and account for them
    Say no
    Make decisions quickly and don’t overanalyze
    Use simple and specific memos
    Maintain a tidy workplace, where necessary information can be easily found

Chap 14: For entrepreneurs only
    Be emotionally committed to your work
    Examine motives before starting new business, and be aware of problems that will come up
    Implement existing skills and strengths, and be practical
    Money is not a sufficient motivator, especially not at first
    Pay low but compromise with stock and/or bonuses
    Overestimate overheads
    Be cautious in partnerships
    Prepare for potential failure

Epilogue:
    Lessons from sports:
        Don’t be complacent
        Don’t be arrogant

If you’re reading this, you’re nobody’s fool – you know to clean-up your social media presence before you start applying, right?  We all make mistakes (looking at you Gov. Northam!), but you don’t need a reminder to clean-up your messes, right?

Good, glad we got that out of the way; now, we can have some fun.

Think about the “bad” aspects of social media – the “fake” news, the witch-hunts, the trolling.

What do they all have in common?

I’d say their most important commonality is a complete lack of critical thinking.  Face it, we should know better: so many of those stories can’t possibly be true.

I think these “panics” demonstrate an important economic insight: rational ignorance.  For most of us, the truth simply doesn’t matter most of the time; consequently, we don’t bother to investigate.  Honestly, think about the most recent conversation you had with anyone about anything: how much of what they said did you investigate in any way?  Did you ever bother to consider whether their statements matched their previous statements? The objective evidence? Your previous beliefs?

Was the “truth” of what they said very important to you?  Or were you mostly just chatting? Or taking orders? Or giving them?  If your boss is wrong, do you care? If you’re wrong, do you care to be set right?  If you think about it, we often don’t care about the truth, and, thus, we often don’t bother to look for it.

Why does this matter?  Because the MBA admissions officer reading your essay will suffer from rational ignorance: your life will change if he or she makes the wrong decision on your application, but his or her life won’t; consequently, she won’t be trying that hard to get to “know” you.

You need to overcome that rational ignorance – you need to make your application interesting enough to make yourself worth knowing.

So think about social media: what do you read?  What catches your eye? Obviously, you can’t talk about the Kardashians or any of that, but why do people like to read about the Kardashians?  

Ask yourself what makes clickbait clickbait and how you might be able to incorporate those elements into your own application.  How can you increase the conflict in your story? How can raise the stakes?

What do we read?  The rise of the unknown, the fall of the privileged, the life and death of the protagonist, the star-crossed lovers, love at first sight – it’s the same basic stories over and over again.  These stories work as click-bait, and they work as application essays because they’re common human experiences we all care about.

To put it another way, no one really cares about your award at the I-bank because everyone else has one and because it’s got nothing to do with them, but everybody cares about job loss, bankruptcy, and disgrace because we all share those fears.  If your victory over those fears culminated in an award, then that’s a story that will overcome any admission officer’s rational ignorance – even though it’s the same story.

In short, it’s all about presentation, which is precisely why you need our admissions consulting.

As a way to combat rising costs or simply to distinguish themselves from other programs, more and more B-schools are offering degrees other than the traditional MBA, but are these degrees good values?

I think we can’t answer that question unless we first ask ourselves why we’re seeking an MBA in the first place.  

If you want a traditional consulting or I-bank or finance job, then you really need an MBA from the Magic Seven, no questions asked.  I think you might, in some cases, get a pretty good shot at your dreams if you use one of the top foreign business schools, but – honestly – that’s about it.  If you want to punch your ticket, then your choices are few.

If, however, you simply want to “learn,” then – sure – all B-schools have pretty similar curricula.

So what’s the real argument for a non-traditional degree?  It’s that these degrees might help you sneak into a better program than you’d otherwise make, and that could be a good deal for some.

But it’s not the deal you should take.  Look, the GMAT can be beat – it’s not some talent contest that measures what God gave you; it’s an achievement test, which measures how well you’ve learned to play the game.  Rather than looking for a short cut, get help learning the game. Honestly, if people spent half as much time and money preparing for the test as they spend trying to circumvent the test, I think they’d soon realize that beating the test is the best short-cut of all.  Sure, it’s not cheap, but it works.

Second, I think you’d be better off building up your application than looking for new places to send it.  B-school isn’t law school or med school; b-school takes plenty of second-tier academic talents because B-school isn’t looking for school smarts alone.

Third, I think that’s the ultimate problem with “alternative” degrees – what, exactly, are you going to do with your finance degree or whatever?  Prove you’re smart? I mean do you honestly think that your future employers can’t figure out what you’re doing?

An MBA, in large part, signals to employers that you are the kind of person who can get into and graduate from that sort of program; economists call it “signaling”.  So, unless the specialized masters is in the field that's "exactly" what you'll be doing after graduating, the MBA-alternative degree only proves that you aren’t the sort of person who could get into a great MBA program – why would that help you?

Yes, I know – I’m biased: I think you should study for the test and get admissions counseling instead of looking for a short-cut, but biased doesn’t mean wrong.  We’ve built this business because we believe in what we do: we can help you get into a great MBA program.

Or you can look for a short-cut.  The choice is yours.

Chris

Here at TPU, we like to worry about the GMAT; we take it seriously because we know that you take it seriously, and we’re here to help you.

But it’s not worth anyone’s life or health.

Applying to B-school is stressful.  If you don’t lose heart from time to time, you probably aren’t appreciating the gravity of your situation, but if you ever feel like it’s getting to much for you, let us know!  

Obviously, we can’t diagnose or treat a serious mental issue, but we can listen – and refer you to someone who can help, if appropriate.

Whatever you do, don’t suffer in silence.  We’re not mind readers; we don’t know if you’re not studying or not studying as well as you ought because you’re suffering some problems you haven’t told us about, so talk!  

And if you can’t (or won’t) talk to us, talk to someone.

There are plenty of ways to get into B-school without endangering your health, so don’t tough it out, seek help.

In the meantime, don’t make this already-stressful process more stressful than it has to be.  Through diet, exercise, and commonsense, you can minimize the stress and strain – that’s why we recommend a schedule, it helps ensure you can get everything else you need to get done done.

I can’t stress this enough: this process, especially the test, is a physical and mental ordeal.  Personally, I once had to leave a test and cancel the score because I wasn’t feeling well and I chose to mix a few prescription drugs that I didn’t realize shouldn’t have been mixed – the result was a racing heart and a failed test.  So, remember that you can’t perform unless your mind and body perform; taking care of both is studying – think of it, and plan for it, in that way.

Here at TPU, we don’t like to waste anything, so I’ll close this post reminding you that you might have experienced some issues in your past.  If so, disclose it. I’m not saying you should discuss every up and down in your life, but if – for example – your grades suffered during an illness, don’t hesitate to explain that in your application.  It’s better than just seeming unintelligent, careless, or lazy. Remember that the admissions officers are humans; they understand health issues.

Now don’t go overboard: don’t make yourself seem like you were dying or something, but just state the truth in a short, clear, and relevant manner.  Like, “my grades fell in fall ’17 because I had back surgery,” etc. I don’t want to tell you how to document your experience because the right answer depends on a whole host of factors, but I do want you to know that you shouldn’t hide it – don’t be ashamed and don’t think nobody will notice.

And please don’t limit your creativity: it may very well be that your experience with X led you to realize you wanted to do Y with your life – that could be a great essay!  (Or even a great business!)

In some sense, a great essay is like a great story: we want a hero who overcame great odds, so don’t be shy about discussing the odds you overcame!  And, whatever you do, don’t lose perspective: we’ll help you reach your targeted score, and we’ll guide you to the right B-School, but – whatever happens – keep your health!  Too many people are counting on you.

Here at TPU, we never get political.  Unless and until one of the candidates comes out against MBAs or something, we don’t have time for anything, but test prep and admissions consulting.  GMAT is our life, and – when you join us – it’ll be your life until you achieve your targeted score.

So why am I bringing up fake news?

First, I want to remind you of all those horror stories out there: don’t become the next viral sensation.  To the extent there’s anything “bad” in your social media history, get rid of it. And, for the time being, get off social media.  You’ll never write anything on social media that will get you into B-school, but you might write something that will create a problem for you.  

Besides, you don’t have any time for social media.  You should be reviewing your flash cards, or reading, or reviewing problems you’ve missed; you’ve got no time to find out what the Kardashians have been doing.  (But if you did, it would blow your mind… just kidding.)

Second, I want you to start thinking about essay topics.  Remember the best essays come from your life experience, but your life can be digital.  Did you experience a social media crisis? Did you help lead your business through such a crisis?  Or did you help it avoid one?

At some level, I don’t care whether you helped your synagogue reach out to disaffected members or you developed a strategy to respond to rumors your investment bank is run by Satan; it’s not the crisis that concerns me, it’s the qualities you displayed in your response, and the insights you’ve gleaned.

So, let’s talk about fake news in the hope that you might find some great material for your applications.

Why is fake news a problem?  Here’s my theory: we live in a post-literate age.  Here’s what I mean: most people can read, but they don’t; consequently, the function like illiterates – they simply lack enough experience and background information to assess news stories.  As a result, they’re easily whipped up into a frenzy.

Let me illustrate my point with one concrete example: a group of pranksters have repeatedly managed to persuade news organizations to report that they’re living without food because they believe (and, supposedly, have proven) that humans don’t need food.  I suggest that anyone who reads would know that’s impossible, that it violates multiple laws of physics and physiology, but if you’re not a reader, you don’t tend to think in those terms, you don’t have the tools to assess these claims because nobody can remember everything and most web surfers don’t take the time to check what they’re “surfing.”  Again, non-readers could check, but they don’t because they’ve fallen out of the habit of reading, preferring instead to “consume” media.

How does that relate to GMAT?

GMAT specifically measures your ability to see through the nonsense, and the precision of your thinking.

You lose points for sloppy/imprecise thinking. The less prone to cognitive biases you are, the higher you'll score. The most obvious example of GMAT critical thinking is in the aptly titled Critical Reasoning section. You may be asked to weaken an argument or identify an assumption or information that would help you evaluate an argument.  In Boldface questions, you are asked to identify what role certain sentences play in a passage. This is crucial for legal contracts. Is this phrase inconsequential? Is it a big deal? See the whole picture.  Real life is far more complicated than a single CR boldface question, but your performance in these mini-models gives a glimpse of how likely you are to commit similar errors in the big picture.

But other than that, cognitive biases/shortcuts are measured for in other areas of the test. In Problem Solving, often an intermediate answer will be a trap answer choice.  In Data Sufficiency, they make it look like they provided sufficient information when actually they didn't.  In SC, two sentences may sound almost exactly the same but mean completely different things!


But back to the bigger picture about fake news, you may wonder how fake news relates to B-school.  Well, do you think anybody’s going to bother to “read” negative comments about you or your company?  How does a company (or professional) survive when reputation can be destroyed in an instant?  Whatever you think of that smirking kid from Covington, have you – or anyone at your company – ever done anything that might look bad in a quick shot or short video?

See my point?  Your business could be shattered in an instant – how can B-school help you prepare?  How have you demonstrated your ability to anticipate and defuse such dangers?

There could be a great essay in there.