“WHY??” I asked him. So just to give you all a little background, this guy is a doctor. Doing an MBA wasn’t something he had ever talked about.
“Because I want to start a business” he said.
On asking him what business he was planning to get into, it was surprising that he had the business plan for a medical business ready, the costs figured out, the secondary research data in place. He had spent the last few months working on the plan. “But why MBA then?” was my concern.
“Because being an MBA is necessary these days. It teaches you how to manage a larger business. It makes people take you seriously. It makes getting an investment easier.” was his response.
There are many people around us who think having an MBA is going to make your road to entrepreneurship easy. But does it? Here is my response to my friend:
“If I am an interviewer at this B-School you want to get into and I ask you the reason why you want to do an MBA, and you give me the above answer, I will be baffled. Did you actually start a business that you found out that you needed an MBA to make it successful? How are you worried about managing a larger business when you haven’t even started up? You won’t be directly starting a large business right. You will begin small. An MBA is not going to teach you how to be an entrepreneur. All it can teach you is a little bit of finance and a little bit of marketing. You will learn more than that in that one year if you actually startup instead.”
I did get him thinking. Gladly, he agreed later on. He decided he will do an MBA only when he actually needs it. He will not take it as a ticket to success. He has decided to go ahead and startup.
Now, my point is not to undermine the benefit of a certain educational course. But what I will do is give pointers both in favor of and against doing an MBA. You can select which points among those are important to you, weigh both sides and take an informed call.
Benefits of doing an MBA
1) Networking – The single biggest advantage, according to me, of doing an MBA from a good institute is the access to the alumni network. Also possibly the only real advantage.
2) A little bit knowledge of different functions like Finance, Marketing, Operations, HR.
3) A chance to learn from a peer group from different age, backgrounds and sectors. Everyone brings something new to the table. Good learning experience.
4) Adds that extra line on your CV.
5) Teaches you a lot of jargon which makes you sound wiser.
Why MBA can be avoided for wannabe entrepreneurs
1) 2 years for a full-time course can be a huge opportunity cost. What if you could start a business right now and by the end of 2 years you would actually be wiser, experienced, and making money.
2) For networking, there are enormous number of conferences, events, communities (like Rodinhoods) etc. You can meet great people/partners/investors without having to spend 2 years in classroom learning nothing.
3) There is nothing better than experiential learning. Starting up and learning on the way. A B-School might give you a very protected and theoretical environment for 2 years.
| 4) Teaches theories like PESTEL, SWOT, BCG Matrix which will |  |
help you in real situations |
5) THE BIGGEST THREAT – Shows you a comfortable life and greener pastures. I have seen many people let their entrepreneurial dream go when they see the placement season approach and they see a comfortable, stable life as an option. I knew a guy who wanted to start a unique music event in India but ended up being a banker. He lives in one of those cells in an excel spreadsheet now.
6) MBA comes with an A-certification. A stands for arrogance. Makes you delusional that you are better than others. Usually a condition hard to cure.
Think of that B-school as the Emperor saying “Welcome to the dark side”
And envision Yoda say “Careful, you must be. Falter, you must not”
Find me on Twitter at: @MrSarcastobeat