Why Do We Do An MBA?

This question had been bothering me for ages. I also know that some of my batch-mates from my MBA days have been mulling over this question for quite a long time, too. 

A Master In Business Administration promises you a prosperous career. After all, you are taught the basics of each and every field possible, be it finance, marketing, HR, Statistics, Operations, literally everything, and then you choose a field and master it. The knowledge you end up gathering, processing, and applying through case studies and internship, and all those industry orientations, give you the feeling of becoming an entrepreneur yourself. Being your own boss. Imagine the power you will wield. For others, it is the promise of holding prestigious and powerful positions in multinational organizations. Of course, all this takes time. It does not just come to us by holding an MBA degree, right? 

But what goes wrong in the process? Why do we feel trapped in the jobs we have? They pay us well and it is also a prestigious title to have. What then? The answer lies in the question itself. It is the money. At the end of the day, each and everything boils down to it. We need to pay our bills and continue living in and improving the standard of our living. Any change to the status quo threatens to stop the amazing credit to our bank accounts on the first of every month. The time we spend in earning these big bucks don't allow us to pursue anything else. Heck, many a time, our job agreement does not allow us to pursue a business apart from what our daily job specifies us to do. Very soon, we feel that we are not in line with what our heart really wants. Very few of us are lucky enough to take that plunge, without a care in the world. We jump into what we do best and what our heart wants. 

Although it is not possible for all of us to just ditch our jobs and start our own business/startup and become an entrepreneur, we can still do something which makes us happy. Whatever it is. Blog, write reviews, travel, eat, splurge, buy cars, invest in stocks, just do it. Never allow yourself to feel trapped and forget why you did that MBA in the first place. It taught you many things, apart from subjects, it taught you life skills. It taught you to handle pressure and stress like a boss. 

For those who have fresh MBAs and are not sure if you have landed the right job or found your right calling, introspect. Think about what you are really good at. Use your talent and your degree to make a switch as early as possible. As later, the paycheck becomes fatter and the trap becomes tighter. You have nothing to lose when you are new to any kind of situation right?

Very few of us, hardly any, maybe actually know what we want to do with our life. I am pretty much risk-averse. I wanted to study finance all my life. My love for numbers and fundamental analysis was bigger than the love of gourmet food. I did my bachelors in finance and an MBA in finance, too. But after a year in the finance job scenario, my heart yearned to write. I just wanted to write and that is what I did. I switched careers, way early in life. I took a huge salary hit. But started building on it. I knew I couldn't have both passion and money at the same time, that too, at the very beginning. 5 years down the line, I love my job and I am happy with the money that it brings in. I am my own boss and have all freedom of what I want to do with my free time. 

I want this for more people. I want everyone to be content with that one thing that pays their bills. So many of my friends have now taken the plunge and have started their own initiative. Some are compulsive travelers, some have started their own consultancy, and some are extremely happy with the positions they hold at their workplace. I feel proud of all of them and I know, if you put your mind to it, you can most certainly do it, too.