Hey Entrepreneur – Please Get an MBA

I spent today reading about Avon because of an article that I found on Linkedin, followed up by a search fueled my own curiosity and drive to learn. I found it really, really interesting.

Great post - point by point refutation of the "don't get an MBA".

One thing I would like to add - finding and filling the gaps in your knowledge.

Repost from "the don't get an MBA" thread : There might be an education bubble. There might be an anti-education bias - especially here. But even with the best online tools and classes, what you learn with a standard curriculum is just better - that's the sad truth, and it is even truer if you are a self directed learner and don't care about the grades. Case in point - I got interested in economics and started reading books - then followed online courses and videos from prestigious universities and so on. Purchased textbooks, etc. I worked seriously, but I soon realized that the freedom to dig on subjects I thought worth investigating was mitigated by the lack of common knowledge expected for advancing my knowledge further. You can look at that like a multiple dependancies problem - except that you don't know about these dependancies beforehand. With a traditional class, you acquire the same vocabulary, the same comparison basis and so on - and that's priceless. I have started taking classes, and I now realize that. I learn about topics I would have never learnt on my own and I realize 'yes, they could be quite useful'. Please realize I'm not even taking about the network or other benefits you may find in an MBA - just the actual knowledge. I haven't done an MBA (yet?), but I guess most of the commenters here haven't either - and haven't even tried and given up (which would then be interesting to know). So I wonder how they can judge about its pertinence. Before this experience, I was also imbued in delusions of "online learning that made everything possible". But there's a dependency ceiling - I've touched it. Personally, if I can enroll in one, I know I will.

As I mentionned in my post, I realize that I was really lucky thanks to Quebec government subsidies and that the financial ramifications are significant. However, you can often have your employer subsidize part(or all) of your tuition.

Ultimately, the value of an MBA is significant but the decision to undertake one is very personal. You have to weigh your own value for education with the cost you'll incur.

Or just use this recipe: Be dumb enough to try but smart enough and dedicated enough to make it happen. Throw in a dash of luck. If you're successful, know when to quit. If you're not successful know when to quit.

I don't see how this actually supports the pursuit of an MBA.

For instance, the first point is that you learn a range of subjects, and while acknowledging that you could learn them each through a book, MBA programs let you talk about these subjects with people from unique backgrounds. Why do I need an MBA program to do that? I can quickly find plenty of people from any of the aforementioned industries outside of an MBA program. This is a weak point.

The second point is that it is cheap. I've lived in NYC, worked in finance, and know plenty of MBAs, and the general rule is, if your MBA isn't from a top-tier school, it's hard to justify getting one (more on that in a moment). Just saying you can get a cheap MBA doesn't support the point getting an MBA.

The 5th point probably illustrates best why NOT to get an MBA. MBA programs, historically, have been breeding grounds for large corporations to hire executives from, especially if you come from a top-tier program. However, I don't think entrepreneurship really gives a shit where you went to school or what you studied. Empirically, it doesn't seem to have much impact. Until an MBA program can actually demonstrate that a significant portion of their graduates go on to have a more successful run in startups, I don't think there is a great argument for pursuing an MBA to start a company.