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by spodek 5275 days ago
My first start-up required some coding, which I did with my limited coding skills. But I didn't know accounting, finance, strategy, and things like that.

So, knowing I would start new companies again, I went for an MBA. I got one at Columbia. Before starting I wondered if I should learn to code instead.

I have zero regrets. On the contrary, it was one of my best growth and learning experiences in life (and most fun).

In all fairness, I would have had zero regrets learning to code because I always find ways to love what I do. I learned the hard skills of business, but I learned a lot more, in particular through classes like leadership, general management, negotiation, sales, and other so-called soft-skills.

I learned emotional intelligence, self-awarenss, the value of relationships.

I am a much better businessman for business school than I would have been otherwise.

For the author to say an MBA "is an expensive break from reality that will yield you a strong network and theoretical insight into the business world, but until you actually get out there and experience the business world for yourself, it is still just theory" implies he doesn't understand the value of things outside his immediate experience.

As his experience broadens I would bet he writes something different.

1 comments

I can't agree more. I understand such thinking in the tech community (having been a software developer myself for 3 years). The value offered in a good MBA program is under-rated. This might be partly (or wholly) because of each of us would having encountered a 'not so good' manager in our life. There might have been instances where we feel that 'the guys with MBA who decided on this thing is dumb and so this proves that MBA has no value'. I have been there as well. However, when I did my MBA, I did see the value in the program. Of course there were 'some' dumb classmates who would eventually end up managing smarter employees but that doesn't mean that the MBA program has absolutely no value. Not fair to stereotype I feel.