Since today is Saturday, I thought a cool rant session to start off your weekend would be in order. As a social networking expert, I have learned a number of great marketing strategies over the years for my clients and my own business. However, I still get the all encompassing question: “Why Don’t You Get An MBA In Marketing?”
So to dispel the myths, and sooth the soothsayers, here are 3 reasons why I do not want no stinkin’ MBA in Marketing! As an added benefit, what I am discussing here can be part of how you can become a master marketer in a league of your own without the vaunted MBA from a vine of Ivy.
First, let’s start with the money. I would rather spend $126,576 (Cost of a 2 year Harvard MBA without Room & Board) on marketing my current business. Now, you have to know what you are doing, but as you will see in my second point that is not always necessary to build your business. Additionally, if I did not have it why would I want to create a loan equivalent to the size of my condo?
Business runs on cashflow. While, a company should always use part of that money for education, such an overwhelming abundance of education overwhelms people into inaction. Take action, attend a few seminars on best practices and then take massive action on those seminars ideas you believe fit best with your business.
Second, why would I want a degree that teaches me to think like everyone else. I have a Masters in Education. The degree was interesting when I took the classes. However, the real world applications of this degree were limited in a class where kids were determined to undermine your authority, because it seemed more fun than the lesson plan. What I learned in theory helped a little, but what I learned in the classroom was 100x more applicable enhancing my teaching abilities.
The same holds true in business. Every book, manual, video, and idea I have learned over the past 8 years studying business helped in some way or another. However, the majority of their advice all boiled down to mostly similar ideas that worked when they were getting out of college in 1950. Good news is success is possible with these ideas. Bad news is I need a time machine to accomplish my goals with their ideas.
Business school is geared to teach a theory about what they believe success is in the real world. However, belief does not produce results. Testing and analysis of your marketing does. It is easy for a professor to say what a company did right or wrong at the time. When things unfold, however, you do not have the same luxury. How you respond in these business scenarios matters.
Third, so many successful people today make their way with no fancy degrees. Gates and Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard, David Geffen stayed 1 year at Santa Monica college as well as Steve Jobs left Reed College for India. While a degree can be helpful for jobs, they do very little for building your own business.
While I appreciate the power of learning, I believe our education system has missed the mark in modern society. Too many go for a degree, only to switch careers after leaving. The reasons behind this are numerous. However, I believe a large portion of those who switch do so, because they do not receive an education that actually helps them succeed in the real world. What are your thoughts on an MBA? Good, bad, or indifferent?
Image Attribution: Colin Smith [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
