Post-MBA Lament

Yesterday I submitted my final report. There is nothing left for me now, but to sit back and wait for the powers that be to award me those three miraculous letters: M, B, and A.

So now, in retrospect, what have I learned?

I learned it’s not all about me. There are other people out there who also have passions, skills, and perfections of their own. But then, isn’t that a repeat of what I learned in kindergarten?

I learned there are no answers. Only opinions. And whoever can communicate theirs most convincingly wins.

I learned all the new ways big corporations can spruce it up, but they still can’t hide the fact that it always comes down to the bottom line. Every investment, every expenditure, every strategy in business is judged in the harsh reality of ROI – return on investment.

I learned that we measure our economy by how much we consume. They call it GNP. But I never did understand why we would want to work so hard. After all, everything we consume we first have to produce, making us slaves to our own appetites. Yet this is how countries measure success.

I got to play with numbers and spreadsheets and the English language, but in the midst of all that fun I found nothing new.

Maybe I didn’t truly learn very much, but I did have a few magical years where I could hang out with people who are younger than me, get into some interesting discussions, discover opinions that were different from my own, and occasionally let those opinions change who I am. And maybe that’s the true value of those letters – M, B, and A.