Marketing guru Seth Godin talks about random acts of initiatives and taking small risks in his blog. And I cannot help but relate to what he's writing about. You see, I am - or was - on the verge of getting into an MBA program. I got accepted and have made the reservation fees and all. Then I realized - do I still really need it?
After much soul-searching and well, nights of calculations on how much money I should save within 2 years to cough up some cash (since I will be doing it on my own - no parents, no family business, no company support... which is another issue altogher but hey, they're not my family...)... and a really deep look into exactly what I want, I realized an MBA is not entirely in line with what I wanted to do in life.
A year later, we had compiled more than 500 great ideas, countless lousy ones and had figured out how to think about the structure of a business. I think the five of us would all agree we learned more in that room in the anthropology department than we did in the classes we were paying for. (Emphasis mine.)
Sure, I love business - I love the thrill of setting up ventures, laying down foundations and processes and systems that would outlive me and my tenure in the company. I love the thrill of setting down a small kernel of wisdom that others could then use and improve on to make their office lives a little better and their bussinesses a lot more proftiable or bigger.
But do I really need an MBA for that?
Surely, if I wanted to get into the Big 4 consulting companies which seem to be very much into this MBA thing, I would definitely want it. But I have no plans (and perhaps, I am even a little too old) for the Big 4.
If I wanted to get into Finance - which still fancies me in spite of the past few weeks volatility (which really was I thought an exciting time to be in Finance), an MBA would probably not suit me - since I will most likely be a Quant more than a client-facing, deal-making suit. I'd want to be the guy to come up with the numbers and formulas and algorithms - which may or may not predict the future. (I know, I know... quants are now getting the blame these days for their wonderful predictions and repackaging of CDOs and LDOs and whatever else, and ensuring that they meet risk standards. Hey quants are humans too.) And for that, I'd probably need an MSc in Finance or Mathematics or Applied Physics or Quantum Physics - all of which sound alien to me.
(The furthest I have gone: partial derivatives - and please, no more limit theorems!)
Anyway, I just think that things would be great. Regardless of whether I have an MBA, an MSc in Finance, an MSc in Economic Psychology, or a simple MPhil in Economics.
After all, I survived the corporate world with only a BSc in Psychology and a minor in Theology and Philosophy.
