How bad MBAs for your startup?

Despite of the common belief that MBAs are typically bad for the startup, I want to disagree with this statement.  And to support my point, lets dig into the grounds of the issue.  

Entrepreneurs (typically, without MBA, so let me call them non-MBAs :) are coming to form the company, ready to fight for the vision, to lead the passion.  At some point there is a need for somebody educate to come onboard.  And when MBAs are coming in, entrepreneurs are often making a huge mistake: blinded by the name of b-school and degree, they forget to test candidate to share the same vision and passion.  

More than that, some entrepreneurs I know, don't think they need a passionate MBA.  Instead, they want a super smart and knowledgable person, to use the best of his knowledge to apply to their problem.  They don't even understand why passion is needed for these brutal business men, who are born (or made) leaders.  

But the startup is built by those who came to lead, not leaders.  MBAs may apply the best of their knowledge, but this wouldn't help to win the market, if they are non guided by passion and belief.  Yes, they'd definitely get some portion of it, but never the hearts of mass market, what you are really for.  

Disagree?  Try Start with Why http://www.amazon.com/dp/1591842808/?tag=iwhite-20 by Simon Sinek first.  And than lets talk.

# Posted via email from opportunity__cost

Entrepreneurial Finishing School

I usually hear the “Should I get my MBA?” question at least once a month.

If you’re an entrepreneur, the glib answer is “no.”  It’s also the wrong answer.

via steveblank.com

Great post by Steven Blank. This is the first well written post (on this subject) that really discusses all the why's, but not just the trendy (in the specific circles) "you don't need MBA, because the wash your brains, they make you a monkey that can't be an entrepreneur".

# Posted via web from opportunity__cost

Unlearn Your MBA (by DHH)

via ecorner.stanford.edu

..."Focus on today and not tomorrow". I smell maximalism here, but who said that a little bit of maximalism can't be healthy? Nice thing to listen to, anyways.

# Posted via web from opportunity__cost

Verbal

Well, let me make it straight. Now I know for sure -- I don't like the verbal section of GMAT.

It doesn't make me happy.

While I scored into middle third according to warm-up section of Cracking the GMAT, I decided to start with the first bin, instead of the second one. (Better more then less.)

You know what? I didn't mention any difference. The first bin felt pretty hard for me. Sometimes even really weird.

I made a few "educated" guesses, completed it rather quick, despite on the noise and overall distraction of TV and constantly beeping email coming in (yes, I receive a lot of emails on the weekend, too).

So well, what made me even more surprised is my result, which was about 90% of correct answers.

If you'd ask me about that -- I would say I made at least 30% of mistakes. However, I didn't.

So what could be my options to improve myself in the verbal part of GMAT? Still don't have a good answer for that.

Reading helps, however, to what extent? The texts posted in the GMAT are pretty weird and unlikely to belong to my list of readings. Other then that, I didn't mention any improve in my results.

From what I heard, Manhattans' Sentence Correction is very good. I have plans to acquire this book as soon as I'll finish with my official guides and one more (I guess Kaplan's one). I'm also thinking about Kaplan 800, however, I'm little bit concerned on some reviews saying that the questions in it not that good like even the free ones from mba.com.

I also have a set of printed material from my friends, with some sample questions and tests to go through. However, I'm not very fond of solving problems, that I can't get an explanation for. It will take more time, which I'm pretty limited for anyway.

P.S. Found a nice image to accompany this post. ;)