On Monday, we started our final Quarter of the year. Before Monday, I had been on spring break for 2 weeks. Spring Break is definitely one of the better perks of going back to school, and because we are on a quarter system there were no academic assignments to work on. Basically, we had two weeks to do whatever we wanted. Some classmates went home, others, went on global trips to various parts of the world (Israel, Turkey, Argentina, the list goes on) and some did nothing. I chose to do a mix of work-play by going out to the West coast for two weeks. Out there, I spent some time relaxing with friends, but also undertook a really neat side project: Interviewing CEOs/Founders of tech focused startups. The idea came to me from a class I was taking in which we brought in successful CEOs to talk about their lessons learned and methods for success. I decided that I wanted to do something similar, and reached out to a handful of CEOs from various startups to see if they would agree to a coffee chat/conversation. Fortunately, a handful of them graciously agreed. In total, I spoke to 5 CEOs, and I wanted to highlight some of the lessons that I learned about these CEOs/Founders.
They have confidence and self-awareness – All of the CEOs I interviewed display a commendable mix of confidence and self-awareness. They had a good understanding of who they were, what they wanted to do, and ultimately, what drove and motivated them. While they didn’t necessarily know how they wanted to spend the next 50 years of their life, they did know a few things worth chasing that could make those 50 years rewarding and enjoyable. Then, they had the confidence (and honestly, in my opinion, balls) to go and pursue opportunities in this direction. For one, it meant giving up an investment banking careers to try to build a startup. For another, it meant, leaving one of the world’s most desirable companies to pursue an idea they had in high school. In each case, each entrepreneur showed possessed the ability to identify the things that they wanted to pursue along with the confidence to go actualize those dreams.
They never step learning – All of the CEOs I spoke to graduated from college and went to some of the top institutions in the United States. Each spoke overwhelmingly positive of their experiences in higher education, and attributed elements of their education to pursuing the entrepreneurial path. But all of them also recognized that a lot of the things they would have to do when starting a company were things they had to learn as they went through the process of building a startup, agreeing with the sentiment that there are some limits to what education can provide. After graduating college and even holding several positions, none of these CEOs new how to build a culture, develop hiring processes, or track monthly financials. A lot of this came through on the job learning. Many of these CEOs attributed their education and “love for learning” as a critical factor in being able to consistently develop new knowledge and skills. All CEOs said they loved to read, and attributed a lot of their learning to reading, speaking with mentors, and surrounding themselves with really intelligent team members.
They are not afraid to ask for help – Something I found interesting was the amount of references to the advisors and mentors that they reached out to who provided advice or guidance along the way. I think it’s easy for us to assume that as CEO you are somehow supposed to have all the knowledge of the company. If anything, the best thing these CEOs know is that they don’t know everything and aren’t afraid to ask questions to learn. Furthermore, I was impressed with the ways the CEOs used their networks to advance the direction of their company. In a number of conversations, I heard about how doors opened up through random conversations on plane rides, new connections after failed VC pitches and even online dates that were unsuccessful! Finally, and perhaps on an optimistic note, it was nice to hear from each CEO about the amount of people who played small/large roles in helping their company get off the ground. While some of these was in exchange for some form of money (or equity) there were lots of free advice/counsel given away. The CEOs were incredibly grateful and humble for the good fortune they received. It goes to show you that there are good hearted people out there in the business world.
For each CEO, I asked them if they wanted to give some advice to MBA students, here were some of the responses:
“I feel like Business School is to MBA students like a sandbox is to a kid. You can play in there for as long as you want, you can play with other kids, you can experiment with different things and there are limited repercussions for what you do as long as you don’t harm the other kids in the sandbox. Surely, many people go in with an idea of what they want to do after Business School, but perhaps a great use of business school is to explore new things and ideas that you might find it hard to do once you leave.”
“Sure, you’re classes will be important, and you’re paying a ton of money so it’s important to learn you that material. But if you can’t learn how to work with other people no amount of knowledge or intelligence is going to compensate.”
“Unless you’re a very self-aware and reflective person, it’s hard to make time to consciously think about deep and meaningful questions about your life such as “what do I want to do,” or “What motivates me,” or “What gets me excited?” Well, an MBA is like putting your life on pause and having 2 years to thoroughly pursue answers to the questions. Not many people in life get to do that, so that’s pretty cool”
“So sometimes, MBA students (not just restricted to MBA students) feel like they need a “track.” They need to work in banking for 2-3 years, then go to business school, then go to private equity, corporate finance, etc. Or, they need to work in consulting, go get their MBA, put in their 2 years to get their school paid for and then switch to strategy. Those tracks are all well and good, and will definitely serve you well if you really know that’s what you want to do. Where I think some MBA’s go wrong is that they think they need the track when in reality they don’t. They think they need the stability that the track provides but in reality they don’t. They are capable of taking risks and trying things “outside” of the track, but fall back on it because they know it’s safe. At the end of the day, the track is pretty good, you’ll get you’re 2.5 kids, a white picket fence, a dog and the BMW 3 Series. But you really should ask yourself, is that really what you want? If that is really what you want, then by all means pursue it, but don’t trap yourself into thinking that it’s what you need. If you’re smart enough, and have enough work ethic to get into a top business school, you’re smart enough to take the time to do what you really want and then pursue it, even if it’s off “the track.”
Using part of my spring break to interview some entrepreneurs was an enlightening and insightful learning experience. Who knows, it may even give me some encouragement to pursue my own thing one day!
A Digital Mentor 