Business School is not business
Business school is not business. It can’t be. Business is always changing. As bhorowitz said “this is not checkers, this is mother f*ing chess!” As one-piece moves, new moves open up. Things are constantly moving. The challenges, objectives, and standards of today are not even closely related to those of tomorrow. Job descriptions are constantly changing and processes are being reinvented that are changing entire industries.
Business school on the other hand is something that is pre-set. The instructor sets the syllabus and the way class will be run before the semester begins. There is no “leanness” as describe in Eric Ries “The Lean Startup” or constant iteration of the course. If there are any changes being made at all in the course, it will be over a long period of time at the expense of the suffering of the previous students.
Instructors alone cannot prepare their business students to what they are about to embark on. The two things are too different. Just because a student graduates from business school, does not mean they are equipped to do well in business. A good but not perfect solution to this problem is for the two very different things to work together, but not be treated as the same thing. The most valuable thing I gained from going through business college so far is the experience gained through internships. I am glad that the college I went to highly encourages internships and offers a lot of internship opportunities to students. With that said, I believe that the necessity of internships cannot be stressed enough. The internships I went through were also not “get coffee and push paper” internships. They were “throw you out in the middle of the ocean and see if you can learn to swim” internships. I am thankful for every one of those experiences. As a young college student, you have everything to gain and almost nothing to lose. This is the best time to learn because you can focus on bettering yourself and not on how the hect are you going to pay off your mortgage.
Learning from the experience of others is another solution. I would not be where I am today if it were not for my mentors that I met in college. Mentors that have been where you are and have “seen the movie” of a successful and failed business many times. Use their mistakes to your benefit. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Mentors are typically more than happy to share their experiences with young hungry individuals.
Mentors and great information are easier to find now more than ever. With the world being more connected, it is so much easier to get in touch with valuable people and valuable information. You can find just about anyone’s email on the web if you look hard enough. If not, you can guess and probably get it. Hint: first [email protected] is usually it if they are a part of the founding team. (As long as there isn’t two Jim’s on the founding team).
The internet also opens up access to valuable information. Stanford lectures that used to cost $100k’s to gain access too are now online and FREE! If you want to know something, I will bet there is an extensive step-by-step YouTube video on how to do it. MOOC’s (massive online courses) like YC’s startupschool.org offer expert information from people that most almost never get 1-on-1 time with. You can essentially get an MBA level education without ever stepping foot into a classroom or paying a cent of tuition.
In conclusion, there is a place for business school. I am not suggesting that we all “pull a Zuckerberg” and drop out of business school. (Even if I did.) Business school connected me to a vast network of mentors that I still connect with today. I met people that became my future co-workers and bosses. Business school got me internships that gave me a foundational work experience and grow thick enough skin to go on to other positions.
Stay tuned to see if I actually graduate from business school and write a new post. (I graduate this Fall!)