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One day, you wake up with an idea; you are going to grab your backpack, your best pair of shoes and you’re going to leave the house for a 2 year walkabout. You are not exactly sure where you are going but you have a map. You do not really know what you need to put in the backpack but hope to figure it out along the way. You had briefly discussed the project with your spouse but nobody really knows what will happen during those tortuturous months ahead. It seems very promising and full of challenges, so why not get an MBA?

MBA definition:

MBA are three letters that your manager hopes to achieve. Master of Business Administration. It does sound nice, doesn’t it? This is the kind of title you want beside your name on a business card. Or at least, some people do. Unfortunately, I have another way of seeing things. According to me, it is just three letters and another piece of paper to put on my wall. It wasn’t easy; don’t get me wrong, I earned those three letters through hard work and many a sacrifice. But in the end, has it really made me a better manager (to be?) or a superb employee? I am not quite sure about that.

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So why did you do an MBA?

I have always believed in plan B. When things go wrong, you need to move to plan B easily and keep on truckin’. You can’t afford to simply wait, depressed and balling your eyes out if you lose your job. It is my responsibility as a husband and father to help ensure my family has all the necessities. This is why I have felt the need for a plan B.

I had decided to do an MBA before I became a financial planner (doing my CFP exams was actually my plan B back then ?? ). At that time, I was the senior on my team in our department at the bank and was promised a great career there. The management team saw, in me, their next manager. Since I didn’t want to miss my chance, I decided to register in the MBA program. It was to further my interest in joining the management ranks (I really felt this way back then) and the bank was willing to pay my tuition in the meantime. This was a win-win situation.

In the middle of the MBA, I decided to change career paths and become a financial planner. Nonetheless, I had decided to finish the MBA since I rarely quit projects once having started them! In addition to that, the famous 3 letters were to give me additional credibility in front of clients. They were more inclined to listen to my advice knowing I was getting an MBA in financial services (I guess this is due to my relatively young age. As who was I to tell them what to do with their money ?? ).

This week, our team finally submitted our the latest version of the final paper. This is actually the 3 rd time and I expect to not invest another single minute on this paper. Hopefully, the 3 rd attempt will be the one! So, now that I have completed the program, here is my own definition of the MBA program:

Achieving an MBA is rewarding as people usually give it great credibility.

It is also working on your stuff on a Friday night or Saturday morning while your kids are playing with your spouse. It is entire spending weekends in class or taking vacation days to study.

Having an MBA assures you of a certain employability if anything goes wrong at your current job.

It is also rushing like a fool in a gold mine to succeed at work while trying to get good marks at the same time.

Getting an MBA helps develop a huge network with the “right” people.

It is also being disappointed in humanity when some of your class mates cannot ever arrive to class on time or make presentations without obvious typographical errors. Not everyone in the class deserves the recognition that comes with the MBA but all of them will get it anyways.

Completing an MBA ensures you learn from your classmates and gives you the opportunity to build true friendships.

It is also a pain to manage people, supposedly on your team, that you don’t get along with and try to survive deadlines with these people when they don’t really care about the effort required.

Finally, finishing an MBA takes only a few seconds as time zooms by at the speed of light.

But every single moment seems to last an eternity at the same time!

In the end, I would say that the most important thing is to make sure your spouse and children understand. Getting an MBA is a full body experience and can take over your life and their lives too! It is a great experience but like any step in life where you learn something, it is not easy.

I have received several individual questions about the MBA program so far. I am always glad to answer your questions ?? Just drop me an email at thefinancialblogger at gmail dot com.