New Column : MBA in a Nutshell

I never believed in the magical career-enhancing powers of an MBA. Even as a first year Systems Analyst in P&G, I was able to gain exposure from seniors and managers who built fantastic careers with their MBA qualifications but somehow I never saw myself getting one.

The main reason why I refused to do an MBA was because I was contrarian. It did not make sense to pay top dollar when you can self-study the CFA for the fraction of the cost. I also did not believe that anyone should be made to study and take exams for flaky non-technical subjects like Marketing and Organizational Behavior. That's almost like trying to get a Certificate in Common Sense. I have since done worse, wasting hours of my life on Legal Theory and Philosophy in SMU when it is more productive watching paint dry and playing with my Pi Sai.

Another reason why I was confident I cold eschew the MBA were the many popular books that attempt to summarize an MBA program like 10 Day MBA by Steven Silbiger.

Today, I am still a sucker for MBA guides. My latest purchase was The Visual MBA by Jason Barron.

The next column on this blog will be based on Dr Milo Sobel's MBA in a Nutshell, following the tradition of previous columns, I will comb the book cover to cover over the next few months.

As the book only has eight chapters, I will take a super slow approach, crunching 3-4 pages at a time per blog article so that I can apply the lessons of an MBA course into my life as an investment trainer.

The best time to pick up business skills is when you are actually running a business so that theoretical ideas can be turned into practice. In essence, I am solving a big business case involving my Early Retirement Masterclass product offering.

Maybe this blog might even be able to attract a new kind of MBA candidate into its readership.

Considering that I don't have an MBA myself, this would be kinda ironic.