Business school doesn’t teach you how to have courage and imagination. It does not teach you how to assess and trust people. It does not teach you to be aware of, and how to utilize your instincts. It does not teach you how to survive and prosper in a world riddled with money madness, severe stress, emotional abuse, betrayal, deception and fear are common and omnipresent. Once you finish B-School, you need to build your own Gyroscope to insure your emotional and professional balance.
Mentally, while any MBA graduate can attest to the severe rigors demanded in obtaining a degree, it is nothing compared to the pragmatism and compromise sometimes required to not just be successful, but to survive on the Street.
For instance, I recently counseled a young man in his late 20s, a recent graduate from a prestigious MBA program, who was very successful academically but who now admits he really was not prepared for the level of intense pressure and the nearly impossible situations he faced on a daily basis with an elite Wall Street firm.
An MBA is not a cash card, contrary to popular opinion. If you are lucky, it is more like an admission ticket. It will get you into the party, but that is it. The world will challenge what you are truly made of. Some can hide for a time, but it all comes out in the wash.
After a relatively successful stint selling whole life and annuity products for the insurance division of a major bank, my patient was lucky enough to land a much more lucrative position selling specialized financial products, which was his intended goal when he entered his MBA program. This seemed like a natural progression along his career trajectory, until he ran into one of the many nuances of the Street they usually do not prepare you to deal with – his boss was a complete nightmare.
He was ‘required’ to work six 14 hour days per week, late into the evening most nights. To boot, he did not receive the bonus he felt he was promised, and entitled to, based on his performance.
Many people who hear such accounts, from the outside looking in, may just wonder why he did not just quit and seek employment elsewhere. In some situations, for a myriad of factors, it is not that easy.
Despite the lack of bonus, he was receiving a compensation level probably well in excess of what he could command elsewhere and he knew that. With his financial commitments, he could not take a step down. Due to a family situation, he could not relocate. And, Wall Street is a very insular place; your history follows you.
In short, he was trapped and slowly began to deteriorate. His stories of psychological trauma intensified and claims of deep depression and emotional abuse mounted.
Increasingly desperate, he even started soliciting advice from me as to how he could defraud his employer on disability, unemployment insurance, and/or severance, expecting me to co-conspire with him.
This is an extreme example in an extreme climate that B-School does not address.