Getting My MBA

To Mom and anyone else who might stumble across this humble little blog: yes, I’m still here, and yes, I’m still working on my MBA. I’ll graduate at the end of June 2008 if I don’t flunk anything. I’ve got a 3.94 at this point, so hopefully flunking is not real likely.

It’s just that I’m so stinking busy all the time. If I’m not working or traveling, I’m doing homework or trying to do a little bit with the kids or around the house. I was warned at the beginning of this that it would take a lot to finish, and it has. The end is in sight now, though, and I’m gonna push through and finish this thing.

One good thing has happened already as a result of my studies. I was able to land a new job with real potential with a good company. There is so much management needed that it’s almost a forgone conclusion that being there will make a difference. I’m learning and having fun and making a few extra bucks.

So, if you’re considering getting an MBA, here is my advice:

• Take the time constraints seriously. If the school is any good and if you intend to learn anything, you will be putting a lot of effort into it. I’m the kind of guy who studied about 12 hours total in 4 years of high school and ended with a 4.0. I’m putting 12-20 hours a week into my MBA.
• Take the monetary investment seriously and look into tuition reimbursement. I will get reimbursed for most of my second year but I’m still looking at over $20k in student loans. Ouch.
• Make friends in your classes, but do it wisely. After a class or two, you’ll find that the screening process doesn’t eliminate all of the blowhards who don’t want to contribute or who want to take credit for your work. There will be a core of dedicated, professional people who you can count on. Have a beer and shoot the breeze with anyone, but only trust those who deserve it.
• Learn to write well. In theory, it’s the ideas that count not the presentation. In real life, though, a great idea isn’t worth anything if nobody can understand it. It’s also worthless if you can’t generate enough enthusiasm to make something happen.
• Remember bang for the buck, aka ROI. If you can do a team project via email or with one 4-hour meeting, don’t meet 8 hours a week for 10 weeks straight. Honestly, I know one group who did this. It was total overkill and my A counts for as much as theirs.
• Remember you’re there to learn. Put in extra effort where needed to really get something out of the classes. The piece of paper is valuable, but the real value is what you learn and can apply.

How can I reconcile the last two points? Easy: put in effort to the point where you stop getting something back. That’s the bottom line: remember the bottom line.

Okay, oversimplified and obvious, but it’s what I’ve learned.

The crisis I mentioned in my previous post has been resolved and all ended well, happily.

That’s what one of my dorm-mates used to say all the time (Jim, if you’re out there somewhere, drop me a line!). It was said in an “uncool white guy trying to hang with the way cooler homies” way, intentionally unhip, which was, of course, ironic and hip in its knowledge and flaunting of its own unhipness — predating Weird Al’s “White and Nerdy” by 20+ years. It had those layers of “with it” that somehow seem to thrive only in academic environs. But I digress….

The point of the saying (on one of those many levels anyway) was to remind the listener to figure out why something was done or was necessary. Yet another pointless Humanities chapter to read? “What’s it mean, bro?” Well, it means keeping a good GPA. And, the subject covered means something, somehow, about who we are and why we’re here — despite the frantic efforts of the Humanities department to obscure any potential value of examining the past. And it means that life is filled with things we have to do even if they seem pointless (septic tank pumping, anyone?).

I’m back in school, now, working frantically to keep up and to keep work running and to keep my family running. To be more accurate, most of the family and household duties fall on my wife. That’s why I’m asking myself “what’s it mean, bro?” Is there a point to this MBA quest? My oldest only has another two years of high school left. Am I using that time well? All my kids will be gone in 9 years. Should I be doing something else with them? So what if I never make CIO — I probably won’t anyway, even with my crummy piece of paper from my mediocre school.

Like much of life, I guess, I’ll keep on my current path until the pain becomes too great to ignore. Or until I have a brilliant flash of insight. But I’d bet on the pain happening first….

I always figured business majors would make a lot of money but live rather dull lives. Forgive the stereotype, but I thought that all business people were like the cliché of the accountant: monotone voice, downcast eyes, hunched shoulders, working day after day to save the company one tenth of one cent per unit.

Now me, I’m more creative than that. I like photography, music, and writing. I want to create things–not necessarily build them, but create them. So I went into computer software. Hey, inventing new solutions is a way of life, right? Not so much. I spend my days hunched over a keyboard, looking for bugs in someone else’s code. Recently I got to write about 4500 lines of new code and it felt like heaven. Until I had to debug it.

Meanwhile, in my business classes, we’re learning about this amazing age of creative business — an era where innovation, flexibility, and a quick mind can give a decided advantage. It’s a time where the winners break the rules of traditional business (but not the law, at least not on my watch).

Wow.

Maybe it’s always been this way. But I sure as heck haven’t always seen business this way. Companies are creative, just to survive.

The difference between business and art, though, is that business is real. I don’t mean to diminish the importance, value, or impact of art. But it’s hard to deny that a failed business can impact hundreds or thousands of people. A failed painting, while potentially tragic, would have a tough time having the same effect.

Bottom line? Business is more exciting, and scarier, than I ever considered. On the bright side, the interests I already have and the skills I’ve developed can be leveraged by business school techniques to give me a fighting shot. That’s exciting.

It will take commitment, hard work, and guts, but I can do it. Look for a new, world-changing business to start by, oh, late summer 2008