The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business

Kaufman frames marketing not as manipulation or trickery, but as the essential skill of earning attention and transforming it into sustained interest and profitable action. His argument is grounded in the reality of the modern attention economy: People are overwhelmed, distracted, and indifferent to most messages. Marketing, then, is the discipline of cutting through this noise—not with gimmicks, but with offers that people want and delivery that feels timely, relevant, and respectful.

The chapter builds logically from constraints to strategy. Kaufman begins by addressing the scarcity of attention and introduces key principles: receptivity, remarkability, and the identification of the probable purchaser. These concepts emphasize that effective marketing doesn’t try to speak to everyone; it targets the right audience, at the right time, with a message that resonates. He illustrates this with compelling examples, from the success of Vibram’s bizarre-looking FiveFingers shoes to Progressive Insurance’s strategy of actively turning away unprofitable customers. These stories demonstrate how design, timing, and qualification align to attract not just attention, but the right kind of attention.

Kaufman also introduces mental models like levels of awareness, visualization, demonstration, and narrative—tools for moving a prospect from curiosity to belief. He stresses that emotion matters more than explanation; people buy when they imagine the end result, not when they hear a list of features.