Your MBA is a waste of time...!

There are plenty of Gurus out there that will give you their advice, opinions, and guidance...

Their specialty covers a wide range of subjects from Marriage to Cars, Politics, Religion, Dogs, Business, Investment Banking, and Music - in fact, just about anything that you can think of, they have an opinion or piece of advice they are happy to "give" us - whether we want it or not...

MBAs are just for Corporates and are no good for running your own business or working with SMEs...

So I was told...

And at the time I wondered if it was true, but as I've always been a contrarian I blasted on and ended up with a Distinction...??

So was it worth it...?

An unreserved yes - every minute, lecture, class, book, exam, paper, and dissertation...

For example...

During one lecture the Professor simply walked onto the stage with an image projected onto the screen behind her...

You have 10 seconds to write down what you see on the screen...

So we all immediately scribbled on our pads - in the time before tablets - and then looked around the theatre selecting a few students to share their answers with the room...

Everyone had written the same thing, as I'm sure you would have done given the same instructions...

It's a Dog, a Labrador, a Retriever etc...

Then she came to me...

Mr Holland, what do you see...?

A Dog...

You're an idiot Mr Holland, as are the rest of you.

There is no dog, it's not real, it's a series of dots and pigments laid out on a screen in such a way that your brain is tricked into thinking it's a dog...

Then she walked her own dog onto the stage, it was a Husky and I was invited to go down and meet him...

The Husky was a big fluffy wolf hybrid-looking thing, with a huge curly tail, thick coat, stunning eyes, and a fixed stare that suggested caution.

It's OK he's been fed...

I sat with the dog, gave it a couple of treats, and stroked his head - he leaned into me and eventually lay down with his head in my lap...

They malt too so I was covered in hair...

THIS IS A DOG...

She looked around the room and pointed at the screen - this is not a dog, it's an idea of a dog cleverly planted in your brain...

This Husky is a Dog, you can see him, touch him, smell him, build a relationship with him...

He is real, not a projected series of dots sent to fool you...

DON'T BELIEVE ALL YOU SEE...

She explained that in business and life, most of the information, ideas, statistics, and knowledge will be served to us as constructed images, constructed stories with agendas, motivations, and styles that are designed to influence, trigger and persuade us.

The truth lies in getting up close and personal, the truth lies in finding out the facts, touching, smelling, and feeling the situation.

In business, we can't deal with images and stories, we have to deal with the facts and reality, however unpleasant they may be.

If you want to be effective as a leader, be sure of your facts in all cases...

This Husky story was one of many we were taught, and its relevance didn't strike me until later...

For example...

On Friday last week, The SUN, newspaper - a UK tabloid - published a "story" about a BBC Presenter that had allegedly paid ￡35,000 to a young person for explicit images to be sent to them.

This caused a massive uproar in the media, social media exploded with allegations and accusations flying around.

BBC presenters were forced to deny it was them.

Names were made public and memes were created suggesting it was a certain person or celebrity...

Then a letter arrived from a Lawyer representing the "young person" stating that the whole story was wrong, and nothing had happened...

People saw a projected image of a Dog, a Dog they wanted to see, and then they amplified the Dog and reacted accordingly...

Looks like there was no Dog, time will of course tell...

So what's the lesson...?

People being triggered, inspired, or motivated by fabricated stories and images is probably one of the most dangerous and powerful manipulation strategies...

The lesson is;

1. Respond don't react...
2. Find the evidence, not the hearsay...
3. Take time - the truth usually comes in second...
4. Hold your nerve - don't get caught in the hubris...
5. Get down and dirty with your evidence - feel it, smell it...

And finally, if I or anyone else can trigger you to behave in a certain way, then I can control you...

If you respond to media-published stories about immigration, food banks, money laundering, interest rates, allegations of misconduct, Brexit, Ukraine Et al.

Then you not only become predictable and controllable, but based on your actions you may well bring to reality the very situation that had been presented to you...

The world simply becomes a series of self-fulfilling prophecies, made up by the media and those with no qualifications, experience, or knowledge of the facts to make a factual observation...

We live in a world of AI, Deep Fakery, Image, Audio, and Video manipulation - we don't know what to trust anymore...

We must take time to look behind the image, the story the evidence - now more than ever, we must look for the facts, not just as someone else sees them, but the reality of them...

So, was the MBA worth doing - yes absolutely...

Mainly because I got to meet that Husky but learned an important lesson in the process...