Take a beautiful look at this picture. No, I did not take it, but someone captured this magnificent landscape, and I look forward to the next time I gaze upon an equally, if not more, wondrous environment. How long did it take to build this environment? Hundreds of thousands of years? Millions of years? It was most likely formed through glacial movement wearing away these crevices in the valley to create the stark contrasting environments of lake, forest, and snow-capped mountains. The result is majestic beauty.
Singularity aside, we don’t have hundreds of thousands or millions of years to craft an environment we’d like to live in. With the advent of technological innovation, we certainly have a lot of tools to create a world in which we’d like to live in. I’m sure we could bring in enough Caterpillar Machines and man power to recreate this scene…maybe a few man-made snow machines and go on a Johnny Appleseed planting spree…
How do we create the world, the reality we’d like to live in while also enjoying the whole “enjoying living” part of life?
Excuse the gross simplification on the civilization of man here, but man collected in tribes organized states and built entities to operate in these states.
As a thoroughbred in newspaper publishing, I would love to continue to ascertain the checks and balances of the state through the power of the press, but currently that is not the case.
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” -Upton Sinclair
So what do you do? Some would throw hands in the air in academic frustration, pour another glass of Bordeaux, and move on to the next topic de jour. And in fact, many have and that’s been the beautiful controlling factor of capitalism…create an economic environment in which the individual is conditioned to accept the status quo and its eventual trajectory towards the unification and solidification of power that was so purposefully separated by the founding fathers.
The scary part is not the “Idiocracy” driven theory of the de-evolution of democracy in society, it is when the wealthy, educated, ruling class is the one facing cognitive dissonance to change the trajectory at the sacrifice of their overly abundant yet dutifully gained wallets. The army of today’s generation are the masses of MBA’s systematically programmed to do the system’s bidding…to find the most economically advantageous strategy to boost earnings through whatever means necessary.
Cut salaries? Departments? Merge? Reverse Merge? IPO? Acquire? Change our revenue model? Expand territories? Raise prices? You name it MBA’s like me have learned about all the tools to further the process towards economies of scale, barriers to entry, and leverage. We are computers. Attend our classes and you will see rote memory at its finest, aged 27-32 years on average, disguised as free-thinking responses to “case studies”. The free thinking emerges as bullsh*t strategies made on the fly that theoretically sound good, but when pushed towards specifics, that’s when the ugly head of rote memorization rears itself and no substantive tactical execution can be found. If only we could live in the world of strategy &…not be held accountable for the execution of it.
With our type-A abiding skill-sets we enter into the world towards any industry we find suitable (or who’d pay us the most), and go to work. The challenging part is that our skill-set is useless to make any meaningful change on the world due to our unique positioning. We demand too high a price to affect any small or medium sized business, lack the hustle to provide a significant boost to a startup, and lack industry and company specific know-how as well as the political clout to make any real changes to larger companies. Our greatest utilization is to be churned through the magnificent behemoths known as consulting and investment banking. They got it right. They nailed our economic use. Over worked, over traveled, and measured by the hour and sacrifices made, we go until burnout, all the while being leveraged to the fullest to further the economic machine of those at the top “who made it”.
When you couple this with the MBA’s desire for predictable, steady, society-applauded jobs, extravagant vacations, marriage or philandering, the possibility of creating a family, and the need to repay student loans, it just makes sense. Plus hey…after two years of these jobs you’ll have gained so much knowledge and experience and reputation that you can go anywhere…so wait just a few more years before actually living the life you want to.
This is what the “best and brightest” are taught. This is what the system has created, intentionally or unintentionally. And honestly, if you’re the “partner-track” type of person in one of these firms, by all means this is your passion and I dutifully 100% apologize for my previous statements. If after two years in that system, you continue to wake up energized, motivated, and healthy then please excuse me for my words that have transgressed on your reality.
But for the rest…if people ask if you should get an MBA, is this what I tell them?
The fact is I absolutely value my experience, my education, my opportunity. The two years were priceless. I learned all the tools and tricks I could. Not to follow the gravitational pull towards mental obsolescence and internal politics, but so that I could apply it to work on my self-development in a pursuit uniquely designed for me.
For those who have found a similar unique passion AND the skill sets and network available in the MBA are what’s needed, 100% go for it! If you enjoy the system or are happy with the predestined journey of the average MBA student, also 100% go for it! If you are an entrepreneur, a true entrepreneur who needs to fill in gaps of understanding, want to leverage your classmates and network internationally to incubate your company 100% go for it (and miss as much class as you possibly can)! If you have no idea what you want to do, 100% go for it, it’s like 2 years to redefine your life’s purpose…most likely you’ll end up in some corporate rotational leadership program, banking, or consulting…and for a lot of people that’s the dream, so go for it!
If you think you want to do a startup but are not sure, so you’re also going to “just look” at other options…stop kidding yourself, you will be pulled into that gravitational pull of the average path of the student and end up with a safer option.
And…if you want a really cool job in the media industry or Venture Capital or the like…get ready because it will be two years of unpaid internships, countless networking interviews, and months post-graduation running around trying to get a job. Think about this, why would these firms who have countless MBA’s pursuing the position pre-commit to you? They have every incentive to make you wait to weed out those without the steel stomach, without the iron will and true desire. Plus, many in those industries look down on MBAs, either out of jealousy or more likely for recognizing most of the education is either inapplicable or horribly misleading you to think you actually know how that industry works…and with the inherited hubris and lofty compensation expectations…why should they even bother!
When admissions requirements stipulate an essay on “Why you want to get an MBA?” it’s probably the best thing they could do for you. If you can’t make a strong case for the MBA, it’s not for you. That’s my best advice. Instead of asking others if you should get an MBA or what I got out of it, look inward and make the case from your internal compass. Is it pointing to MBA? Under what polarity is it pulling you there? What are you trying to achieve? For there’s just so much you could do, focus and understanding is key.
The different polarities and reasons why people got their MBA that I observed are:
- Those who are doing it to get their families out of the poverty/lower middle-class cycle whose families put everything in their child’s education
- Those who studied other things in undergrad and realize that they need business skills to advance
- Those building technical skills in financial modeling like real estate, private equity, hedge funds, social impact investing, etc.
- Those wanting a good network and using it as an excuse to launch companies
- Those who want a 2 year “hall pass” to figure life out (although a yoga retreat or trip to Peru might be more cost and time effective)
- Those sponsored by consulting and want to party for 2 years before they sign their lives away again
- Those who messed up the first time and chose the wrong profession hoping they can pick a better one this time
- Those who have enough money and clout to use it as bragging rights and create a perception that they’re smart
- Those wantrapreneurs who think they want to start a company but subconsciously are drawn to the stability of a corporate job
- Those wanting to continue on the system’s conveyor belt designed for the smart, risk-averse, and predictable individuals
Just make sure you understand and stay true to what attracted you to get an MBA before your salary depends on you not. For me, it truly was magical.
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