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Really. Really? Running a business has nothing to do with...um...running a business? No, no it's not radically different. Only in the minds of those who have no idea what's involved with business, MBA programs, or what the definition of entrepreneur is outside of these articles begging you to buy books, and web services, and promising that if you sit in your mommy's basement long enough putting up $10 web sites you will be a billionaire. Only with people who can't take ideas and education and use them as the springboard for something great, but instead can only get by regurgitating the thoughts of those who have actually been there and taken the time to know WHY things are the way they are and WHY those things have to change and WHAT has to change because of it. First, there are many many things wrong with Mr. Blank's deck at slideshare. Not the least of which is that only start ups are scalable and agile. That b-plans are static. Maybe in the "old days" when he was cutting his teeth. When education was unobtainable. When companies ran by the rules of companies like GM and Chrysler. I assure you, whatever you know of a company externally, or from some grunt, is not what is going on internally in the C-Suite. Second, there is such a diluted idea of what entrepreneurship is. As I said, it's not sitting in mommy's basement knocking out crappy, templated websites hoping one hits. To be an entrepreneur you have to have skin in the game. Entrepreneurship's definition includes the word "risk". Registering an $8 domain and putting up an app using the free service level Google App Engine doesn't carry any inherent risk. Putting your house up to grab a loan, hiring staff and remembering that if you fail, these people have no jobs. People with families to feed. Having nothing much to fall back on. This involves RISK. It might be stupid to do, but it can force you to make more calculated decisions. And finally remember that people like Mr. Blank and the older VC/Startup/Entrepreneur set usually cut their teeth at larger companies, or in the presence of those with degrees in business, accounting, finance. This is mostly where they learned the trade second hand. As many old timers did. This is where they learned how to balance books, the basics of marketing, the rules of finance, that they used to forge paths in their futures. And as some background to me, I started a company with a friend 17 years ago, grew that company into a multi-million dollar firm with several divisions. I ran one division of the company with around 25 ftes. I ran that place for 12 years before finally going for my MBA, and then moving on to work at a large healthcare organization. |
More specifically, running a business with a known, stable business model is a very different activity than starting from scratch and discovering a new business. MBAs prepare you for the former, but generally not the latter.
A point that your history seems to match: you started and ran a business just fine without an MBA. And now that you have one, you've turned from entrepreneurship to working at large company.