How do I know?

MBA students told me, which ultimately led me to decide against going to business school.

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I wanted to get an MBA since I started studying engineering at the University of Michigan.

It seemed like the next logical step to take once I began my career.

I took the GMAT exam senior year and joined a consulting firm. Business school was reinforced as the best next move by everyone around me.

I’d spent my life following the playbook on How To Be Successful, and it had gotten me this far. Why stop now?

So I prepared my recommenders and began visiting top MBA programs across the country.

I was dead set on Stanford and had my dream classes picked out. It'd be difficult to get accepted, but that's what made it so enticing. I needed the prestige like I needed to get A pluses growing up.

Once I realized how little I had actually saved up, I decided to interview active MBA students to confirm the plan…

First years said:

Second years said:

These conversations pushed me to figure out what I really wanted and find my deeper why.

I dropped the external expectations, and got honest with myself.

Upon further reflection, I realized that an MBA — while it’d be fun and I’d expand my network — wouldn’t be the best ROI (both money and time) if I wanted to become an entrepreneur.

It wasn’t worth going into massive debt to put my career on pause for 2 years. It’d be a better use of time to stack skills at an early stage startup, get paid to do it, and save up to launch my own business instead.

Those MBAs unknowingly talked me out of it. I saved over $200K thanks to them.

Spending $2,000 to figure out my next career move suddenly seemed like a small price to pay.

The small savings I’d amassed funded the startup job seeker accelerator program I joined (for 1/100th of the cost) and the 3-month leave of absence I took to pivot careers.

The decision NOT to go to business school accelerated my career — in the direction I needed.

It set me on my path of encouraging others to get clarity on their vision & values, take control of their career, and invest in themselves and their skills. It's why you're reading this right now.

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What about the MBA students who went without knowing their deeper why?

Many are still lost. Tighter golden handcuffs and piles of debt influence their career decisions despite having an incredible network. Take my former colleague who hates his banking job for example.

Others reach out to me for coaching support. Told their MBA would be the solution, but they weren't taught how to get career clarity or how to market themselves in a sea of other qualified graduates.

One told me this week, “My MBA program left me more confused. I had even more ideas of what I could do with my career and was no closer to narrowing it down.”

This could have easily been me.

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Whether an MBA is a cost or an investment in your future self — it depends on who you want to be.

The decision is personal.

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If you think it through, you may learn than an MBA is indeed the best route to accelerate your career.

It could be a complete career reset and path into a new direction, powered by a great brand name and supercharged network.

My friend Jennifer is using hers to pivot from startups to venture capital. Another friend moved from construction to consulting and maximized her earning potential as a result.

An MBA could be the designated next step in your career path of choice, and your career options will expand momentously afterward.

Many senior leaders I’ve met in big tech, consulting, and investing have an MBA — though I believe the rise of online education and internet communities have made it far less of a requirement for the next generation.

If you get it paid for and can afford it, a full-time MBA could be a 2-year hiatus from work with darn good upside. Learning and traveling with friends all over the world? Heck yes.

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So should YOU pursue an MBA?

If you’re at a career crossroads, use these 6 steps to figure out if you need an MBA (or what to do instead):

1. Do deep self reflection on what you want from your life and career. Keep asking why to get deeper.
2. What MUST be true to achieve that end goal?
3. Question the assumptions you just wrote down. Look for evidence of how you might be wrong.
4. Narrow down your set of assumptions on what must be true
5. Eliminate what you’re currently doing (or planning to) that doesn’t align
6. Take massive action on what will get you closer

I’m not anti-business school. I am anti-following the default path because everyone else does.

Learn how to define your own version of success. Then figure out the fastest path to get there.

This will serve you far more than any degree.

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If you're curious to learn more about this perspective, read The Pathless Path by Paul Millerd. My story mirrors his in many ways. I've read it twice in the past year, and the lessons hit differently at various stages of the journey. 10/10 recommend.
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P.S. Here I am graduating college with no clue I’d be building my own business 7 years later. Go Blue!