StartupAddict wrote:
Ok, so I've been going through countless schools for countless weeks now, writing names on a board then erasing them and starting all over. I've got it narrowed down to 3:
Stanford (Silicon Valley, and well, it's Stanford.)
Haas (Silicon Valley)
INSEAD (Very entrepreneurial with an international focus and plenty of opportunities for travel/languages)
Can someone suggest some other schools I should take a look at? My ultimate goal is to be a serial entrepreneur... in anything pretty much. I want to build a huge conglomorate with many businesses, ie Web 2.0, Import/Export (food, arms, electronics, luxury cars...)/etc. The main point is I want the freedom of my own business, I don't want to be a cog in some corporate machine.
The problem that really gets me is it seems as if these business schools are cookie cutter operations. Joe Bob does X years in IB/MC, gets his MBA, continues on in IB/MC. Or Perkash does 5 years in IT then gets an MBA and goes into IB. Or Linda works at Microsoft for a few years, gets her MBA, then goes to Google to be a PM or some corporate executive. These people have successful careers, become well off, but to me it all seems mundane. While they're successful, they're no Bill, Larry, Li Ka Ming, Bin Talal or Branson.
Are there any business schools that go after the dreamers and not the conformists?
After reading your post, my take is no b-school would fill its class with all entrepreneurs and spend all its money funding ventures. All b-schools want to create a diverse class and thus you will always have to work with those students that you called ‘conformists’ if you attend one.
I also disagree with your generalization that ‘these?’ b-schools (the b-schools that you are referring to) are ‘cookie cutter operations’. There will always be entrepreneurs at every b-schools, just more at some schools than others. I personally would not want to attend a b-school that is filled with entrepreneurs and no one else even if I was an entrepreneur.
Remember that the experience that you gain from b-school comes from what you make of it - just like no b-school can make you millions of dollars or make you a serial entrepreneur. It’s really what you want to take from b-school, not the other way around.
Okaaaay… so with that said, to answer your question, yes, it helps if you attend a b-school that supports your goals. I would look at Sloan and Babson programs.