No doubt, what you were taught at Harvard, or wherever else, is good stuff. But it's all theory. It's information not applicable knowledge. Do you know what elite consulting firms do with freshly hired Ivy League MBAs?
They put them through rigorous "real life" education programmes to learn how business is done in real life. It's the business equivalent of residency which newly graduated doctors must go through before they can crack open chests and skulls.
And I've found over the years that the essence of business development can't be taught in a sterile environment using theoretical case studies and elegant guesswork.
And while business schools can teach you skills, the success and failure of businesses depend on the character of the people engaged in your business. Character traits like, exciting, enthusing and energising people, working on a challenge, making prompt decisions and being able to turn on a dime.
And four character traits management guru, Tom Peters puts high value on: A peasant's toughness, streak of brutality, good finisher and killer instinct. And I fully agree with him both as a former farmer and a soldier.
It's fine to be a risk allergic, playing-by-the-book theorist in the classroom, but in real life these people need lots of character adjustment to take the daily ambiguities and risks of running businesses on their strides.
We all know that some 99% of the graduating MBAs go into investment banking, consulting and finance... as employees. Why? Because they are so risk-allergic that they wouldn't want to risk their own money on their "expertise". So, they seek out jobs in which they can fumble and tumble day in and day out and get paid for it.
And the remaining few that start their own businesses, graduate and then go on learning how business operates in the real world. They start learning from real practitioners.
So, we're at the same level really. I've just skipped the MBA curriculum that they now try to forget to give more room to real street-smart knowledge.
Oh, and if those MBAs really knew business, instead of becoming indentured servants (a.k.a. employees), they would run their own businesses.
Copywriting legend, one of my writing mentors, John Carlton has put it this way...
"And remember - if the dudes teaching the MBA courses really knew their stuff, do you think they'd be grinding it out in academia? The School of Hard Knocks remains the best university out there."
Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against MBAs. Most of them just don't fit into fast-paced entrepreneurial organisations any better than a piccolo player fits into a heavy metal band. That's all really.
And this is why I went, and have been continually attending the School of Hard Knocks. I find this curriculum more practical and useful and the learning methods more exciting than some academic mish-mash. But that's just me.
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