Starting something?

Most MBA schools market themselves as a breeding ground for entrepreneurs. But in reality, it usually isn't like that. If you were to look at the numbers of people who went into Finance or Consulting or Marketing after an MBA you'll see that maybe only 2% to 4% of the students actually started something. So why do schools talk about entrepreneurship so much?

Well, I personally think schools talk about entrepreneurship because they don't want to be seen as a school that puts people in to a 9-to-5 job only. It does sound good when they're able to say "hey, student X is an entrepreneur and he just IPOed his company this year". They're selling the dream that you can be your own boss and run your own show. Don't fall for that.

Entrepreneurship is an important skill or drive or possibly talent to have. But the school can sit you down and talk about entrepreneurship until it comes out of your ears and you still will think that going to Goldman Sachs is a better option than starting something on your own. The usual line that I hear is that "if you were a real entrepreneur, you would have taken your money and time and started something instead of attending school". How true is that? It's pretty true to a certain extent.

Sometimes, people go to business school because even though they're entrepreneurs (in their heart), they are looking for ideas or a partner to start something. Entrepreneurship as a module is pretty much nonsense. It's actually the entire MBA program (or at least the core parts of an MBA program) that teach a person how to be an entrepreneur - you won't learn how to be an entrepreneur just by taking a module called "Entrepreneurship".

What the schools don't teach you is that starting something on your own is hard work, full of rejection and probably failure. If anything, perhaps they should start doing that in the Entrepreneurship classes, but nobody really wants to talk about the downside of graduating with debt and then starting their own business.

Anyway, I just thought I wanted to tell you guys, if you think coming to business school will make you an entrepreneur, you might find that thinking very wrong. You will learn skills that are important to an entrepreneur, you might meet people that excite you and make you want to start something - but if you are unwilling or have never been willing to put the money down on the line, you will not become an entrepreneur magically.

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theloneranger

I just wanted you to let you know that my application for Tsinghua IMBA has been rejected
:-/

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Hey, I'm really sorry to hear that. But you shouldn't give up hope - there are other schools that would be willing to take you, and some might be even better than Tsinghua. Applying to business school is very much a crapshoot sometimes, you need a little bit of luck.

The few things that you can control are your application essays and your GMAT. You can't really control your past work experiences. I do think though, that if you really feel that Tsinghua SEM is the best school for you, then you should try applying again. If you want some help on the essays again, let me know and I would be happy to read over them for you.


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Alex

Thanks for shining a light on the Tsinghua student budget - the indicative numbers are very helpful. I've just been admitted to the MBA starting September, and would be keen to link up for a drink after arriving in Beijing. Have you an email I can contact you on? Cheers, Alex.

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Hi Alex

Congratulations for being admitted. I hope that this blog allows you to come to Tsinghua University with your eyes wide open knowing what you should expect and get out of the program.

Truth be told, I'm not sure where I will be after this coming June. I'm currently looking at my
options and haven't made a decision on what to do or where to go. But we can arrange to meet up during September if I'm still around!

But feel free to ask me more questions if I haven't really covered anything in this blog and I'll try to answer it the best I can.

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Brisk & Fade - Stay here forever

This is a real classic that I came across again recently. It definitely brings back memories...