Thursday, May 08, 2008
Nothing I Needed to Know I Learned in Business School
In college, I was a man ahead of my time. By this I mean that I went to business school 20 years ago naive in aspiration and unfocused in discipline.I graduated with decent grades from Temple University's business school, but didn't buy into the philosophy of managing an organization or pursuing a profitable venture.
I wanted to make a contribution and make enough to feed a family. Apparently I learned enough in my few English and Statistics courses about numbers and words to have a successful career in journalism. But what I remember most about biz school is that there was almost no teaching of what it takes to run a startup company.
Sure that was before the dot-com era, but what I learned about project management, economics and accounting had nothing to do with the real world. I've learned from the inside out about how to manage a staff, deal with rogue employees, or keep a meeting on task.
Maybe biz school has changed and now kids are taught about angel and series A funding, search marketing, forming a corporation, and creating a business plan and media kit.
For those of us where going back for an MBA is impractical, there's the startup school, as
highlighted by Paul Graham of 37 Signals. No text books, just real world, what you need to know information that will make you smarter than a 5th grader when it comes to starting a business.
What do those with a BS or MBA from after 1996 have to say about your learning experience?
Posted By John Gartner at 11:22 AM
Permanent Link: Nothing I Needed to Know I Learned in Business School
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(2) Comments on Nothing I Needed to Know I Learned in Business School
You bring up a great point that has bugged me for a long time. It seems that more or less a college degree is expected today, but at the same time many of the skills that are taught in school are worthless in the real world. I have a unique view on this because while I did get my AA right away after graduating high school, I then started my career and later my own business before going back to school to finish out my degree. So when I went back for the last 2 years I already had plenty of real life experience, which in my mind is 10 times more valuable than anything I learned in school- especially for someone who wants to run their own business. It is my belief that school teaches us to be workers rather than to be business owners, and my experience definitely backs that up.
One of my professors upon graduation told me that graduating from college is more of an indication of one’s determination and will power than anything. Looking back at this statement, I think that is probably was the biggest thing I learned in college and the most valuable experience I have taken with me. I know that if I put my mind to something I can do it, no matter how overwhelming it may seem. For that reason, along with the experience and contacts I made along the way, school was definitely not a waste of time or money by any means. Yet what I got out of it was very different than what I was expecting going in.
The fact that there are now several schools which are offering entrepreneurial programs is very encouraging to me. My school didn’t offer anything like that, and I’m not all that familiar with how those programs look, but I’d be interested to hear from someone who has been through one. I’d imagine though that a program like that, which is specially catered to entrepreneurs, would be much more valuable for business owners than the traditional business management program like I took.
Comments by Eric : Thursday, May 08, 2008 at 01:46 PM
Well mine wasn't too bad. I have small nuggets of information that I can sill on today. That said the time to information retained ratio is not great. I am sceptical that you can be taught entrepreneurship.
Comments by Permjot Valia : Thursday, May 08, 2008 at 04:28 PM
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