Several years ago I had an opportunity to attend business school. I prepared for months, wrote essays, paid fees, took the GMAT, and received recommendations. Eventually I received a letter that I was accepted. However, it soon occurred to me that I didn’t carefully consider the two great costs of attending: time and money.
Business school is expensive. Since I was going to enroll part-time, there wasn’t really any financial aid and I was looking at loans of $80k+. More importantly, though, I would be spending at least 20 hours a week for lectures and outside work. With full-time work, I would have very little time for anything else.
Thus, I decided against business school. I had already experienced graduate school once and discovered that I learn the best whenever I’m interested and passionate about a subject. It makes sense: think about reading some abstract math textbook versus your favorite magazine or website. I also enjoyed grad school more than undergrad; I believe it was because most of my classes were electives that interested me.
My plan is to create my own MBA. Over the next few years, I hope to teach myself everything I need to know and develop my network similarly to how MBAs network during their studies. Check back in a few years and we’ll see how this turns out…