DISQUS

Dave Van Horn · 5 months ago

MBA? Courses taught by 'professors' who've never risked their own money to people who don't understand business in the first place. ouch.

joshklein · 5 months ago

I think the same can be said of any line of education, though. Professors teaching economics rarely have policy experience in government or in business, art professors are usually not famous painters, and so on.

Is everything besides engineering and science unteachable?

sethgodin · 5 months ago

Actually, you'll never hear me say that college was a waste, or that the business I started there was a waste, or that studying Zig Ziglar was a waste or that my first job out of Stanford was a waste. So I think I'm being fair to my past in judging what mattered.

The only two things wrong with business school are how much it costs and how long it takes. If it was free and lasted six months, it would have been an astonishing value!

joshklein · 5 months ago

I appreciate the opportunity cost argument, but one thing I had never considered -- that Broughton describes as one of the most important takeaways, and possibly worth the monumental cost -- is the personality change, the "life lesson", of his experience. It's a curious question to wonder if part of the value of that business school education is in demystifying and demythologizing business itself.

Of course, that's the same kind of lesson I get from reading your (and Guy's or Fred's) blog.

Thanks for stopping by, Seth!

Matt Daniels · 5 months ago

damn yo--a comment from the venerable Seth Godin!

Matt Daniels · 5 months ago

I've always believed that MBA, Ivy Leagues--really any degree/club/status is a sign of self-selection. It's not that program has in some way endowed an individual with new abilities, but rather that they would have always gone onto greatness.

We we Godin/Wilson/Kawasaki with degree because of a correlation, not causation from their programs. I can imagine that the grad degree is a difficult thing to shy away from, especially in the dog days of the 80s.

I haven't read the book--do they allude to my above point?

joshklein · 5 months ago

No they don't, but it's probably true. Good point! And also a good point that the need for an MBA in the 80's was probably quite different.

Yaacov · 5 months ago

I got advice from a Stanford MBA, "Just hire an MBA or other professional type when the time comes if you need someone with their skills."

Reading books, blogs and case studies seems great to me. Add in a couple of years of startup experience and you're good to go.

See-ming Lee · 4 months ago

Getting an MBA in the business world is irrelevant. Sure.. it's much like getting an MFA in the design world. But it's relevant if you want to teach. It's also relevant if you wish to find a diversity of folks that you may connect with in a very closed space = prime location for sparks to happen in the random universe. If networking means anything in the business world (which it does), MBA (and the school you picked) may be key in your career--just may not be the textbook reason you're expecting, that's all.