BSchool...NOT for Superstars?

Question

What is up gang. Today I wanna talk about a dirty little secret in the business school world. And this may...shake things up a bit. But I figure its best that you hear it here first. You know, from this guy.

So here goes: the smartest, most talented people DONT go to business school. They just dont. Why? Because they dont need to. : ) Let me explain.

When I went to HBS, I was section-mates with a guy--let's call him Jim. He was a smart dude, we all knew that he made a bunch of money at another company when it went public or something. Then, during our summer internship, Jim founded a new company. Today, that company (which everyone on these boards has heard of btw) bought Jim out for well over $100 million.

And guess what--after that summer internship, where he founded this company, he didnt go back to HBS. Why not? Well...why on earth would he?!

People at business school are there (95% of the time anyway) because they NEED something. These arent the super DUPER stars. Even at HBS, they are just, well, the stars. Smart folks, and successful for sure. But if they HAD hit it big already, they wouldnt need to go. Why spend two years and $150K?

Everyone at bschool NEEDS to go there for some reason. Now this is a good thing in many ways--folks will take you SERIOUSLY--folks will try VERY hard to make moves. But they will do that because they have to.

Dirty little secret. Most of the REAL superstars? They dont go to bschool.

: )

Best of luck gang.

mbaneed · Answer

whatever man......people learn, mature, and do things in different ways and different rates....

some tennis players are natural backhand players, some need to hit a thousand backhands to get good at it.....but eventually both end up competing at the same level...

how you get where you get does not matter as long as you have a vision and the drive to get there...so someone goes to hbs and then launches this 100 million $ company.....are they any less of a superstar?

whiplash2411 · Answer

I think the point of the post was to say that even if you don't go to business school, you can still succeed in life, even at a greater extent than those who went to business school (unless I'm mistaken)

Admissionado · Answer

Both points are totally valid. Yes, people learn at their own pace, have different needs etc. and yes, you can succeed in life without B-School. The idea here was also that we do an MBA because we have certain needs and goals, and when someone reaches their goals without an MBA (like our friend Jim) then they may (again like Jim) choose to bypass this step in their careers.

Anasthaesium · Answer

This point is very true!
In the entrepreneurial example you had chosen , Jim could be anyone he wanted to do, without bschool, be it a Vice president in that company which bought him out or a partner in a good VC firm; positions which people get to several years later in their careers, after an MBA. Why would anyone want to go back to BSchool  after  they have made it big. Before, yes maybe. That too is not absolute.

lagomez · Answer

Well, super super Duper Duper stars don't get an undergrad degree. Not to sure what the point of this post is. Surely, a post like the one above belongs on another forum.

Anasthaesium · Answer

Superstars without an undergrad degree are 2 in a million.

IMO,B school is all about taking your odds out and swinging for the fences, knowing that even if you don't score that home run, you would never strike out.

Admissionado · Answer

Hmmm, I'm not sure about that. There is something in the nature of the undergraduate degree, especially in the US that is besides the academics, important in the maturing process. Even son's of ministers, presidents, the superwealthy, etc. seem to do undergraduate degree. But an MBA shall we say is high in its utility, and for us regular folk, as our friend Anasthaesium put it so well, we gotta dig in the spikes and swing for the fences.

AbhiJ · Answer

I totally agree with the poster. Jack Welch never went to B School. Same is true for majority of enterpreneurs. People need to get their expectations clear. 99% of the Top 20 MBA grads are not going to be CEOs, founders of billion dollar companies. Around 5-10% will make it to the top management level. The rest are going to be hanging around trying to be CEOs but would never get there. That's why its called a pyramidical structure. Infact by 40-45 most people have different set of priorities than they had when they were 28. Thats how life is.

BSchool...NOT for Superstars?

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