The lowdown: This What They Don’t Teach You At Harvard Business School summary leaves the theory at the door and gives you the shit that will actually help you succeed.
Mark McCormack was once dubbed the “most powerful man in sports”, as the founder of the management group, IMG.
McCormack gives you so many of the little tidbits that actually help you negotiate deals, network and get ahead in your business.
- McCormack, Mark H. (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 288 Pages – 06/01/1986 (Publication Date) – Bantam (Publisher)
The three key lessons from What They Don’t Teach You At Harvard Business School are:
- Being interested is better than being interesting
- Everyone gets rejected, use it to make you stronger
- Take some time for self-care (and enjoyment)
Lesson One: Being interested is better than being interesting
As you’re probably aware, networking is one of the most important skills in business.
Think of all the wins you’ve had as a business owner, and how many of them are because of a relationship you’ve struck.
Business isn’t as much about graphs and statistics as it is about relationships. Creating these relationships are key.
Listening to your colleagues and to others is a great way to build these relationships and network properly.
And I don’t mean just stand quietly until it is your turn to talk. Listening is an active task, not a passive one.
Listen to what is being said, listen to what the other person may be implying and make sure you take that on board when making decisions and making requests.
Lesson Two: Everyone gets rejected, use it as a positive
We all get rejected from time to time – but enough about my dating life; In business, we all face rejection and failure too.
However, it is vital that you use that gut feeling of discomfort to come back another time and improve.
In business, rejection is rarely personal. Even though it can feel that way after you’ve put your blood sweat and tears into a product or service.
What is important is that you use those feels of rejection and discomfort to strive to be better.
Either your product or your pitch needs improvement.
Lesson Three: Take some time for self-care (and enjoyment)
Business can be cut-throat, and all-encompassing.
It is also a marathon, not a sprint. You’ll be needed tomorrow, so look after yourself.
Schedule time to do what you enjoy doing.
It may sound too structured to schedule in time for working out, or your friends and family, but to make sure you have time to do this, schedule it in. Otherwise, something will definitely get in the way. It always does.
However, sticking to a schedule makes sure you have time for the finer things.
My Personal Takeaway
We are often given information overload. Countless ‘ultimate guide’ blog posts, podcasts, video blogs, books, social media. All of which can help increase your knowledge.
However, What They Don’t Teach You At Harvard Business School reminds the reader that you can have all the knowledge in the world, but if you don’t have the people skills to put it into practice, then it’s useless.
Put it into action
When talking to someone today, observe them (not in a weird way) and see if you can take notes on their personality. Then, make the effort to adjust your behavior accordingly.
If the person has their eyes down and has closed their body off, you don’t want to come in overbearing.
This Book Is Perfect For…
The part-time entrepreneur who is overwhelmed with information.
a Swedish university student, marketing professional, and life-long learner. Here at BookSummaryClub I summarize my favorite non-fiction books into easily digested posts. Hope you like what you’re reading!
🤙 Your Next Step… 🤙
Head across to one of the following pages for more goodies
🍕 Read our Blinkist review and become a member of Blinkist. Read or listen to 3000+ full version quality summaries!
🍕 Read our list of the best business books of all time
🍕 Read some more of our book summaries
🍕 See our top book summary apps