My previous post from Saturday generated the most feedback of any of my posts so far. I received tons of emails from some people who agreed and others who thought I was full of it. I’ll try to clarify and expand further with this post.
I don’t think its wrong to be rich or wrong to want to get rich. Where it becomes a problem is when the main or only goal is to get rich. In situations like this, people cut corners and look the other way to make a quick buck. They do not do the right thing or build for the long term. As my friend Joe, an Indiana business school grad said, “its becomes poker to them.” As in all get rich quick schemes, at some point, someone ends up holding the bag.
My problem with the Business School Way of Life is that, for many, the main and only goal is to get rich. Getting rich should be the byproduct of doing something that is useful and that you like to do. If you create something worthwhile that people want, odds are, society will compensate you for your efforts.
Business school is not the only area of the American economy that is prone to this disease. During the tech boom, people started companies with the express goal of getting rich, rather than building a useful product. In the end, the bubble burst and the people who were in it solely for the money ended up failing. Athletes who are in it only for the money don’t seem to do as well as those who love the game. Construction workers who cut corners to make a quick buck fall victim to the same disease.
At least in previous bubbles, the people who tried to “get rich quick” left behind lasting infrastructure. The railroad tycoons connected America. Oil barons found new resources to lead the world into the automobile age. The fiber optics companies paved the way for the Internet. What has the finance industries’ boom and bust left us with?
My previous post was more a critique of American culture as a whole, using the business school way of life as a lens to focus on the problem. It seems to me that many people my age now expect to love their jobs AND get rich without putting in full effort. It seems to me that people in previous generations expected to have to grind away in jobs that they did not necessarily love in order to succeed. I am not suggesting that everyone should go to work in a big company and grind away in corporate America. On the contrary, I think it would be great if more people took the risk of joining smaller companies out of college or even started their own. This way, they would be more focused on building something lasting, rather than “playing poker” with other people’s money.
I may have been too harsh on business schools and the people who attend them, but I truly believe that the world would be a better place if more people decided to go into other, more productive careers. If more people would stop trying to get rich quick and instead tried to build something new and interesting, maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess that we are in now. I think that if current college students and recent grads got back to the basics of trying to solve problems and build interesting and worthwhile things, they, along with us, would be better off.
4 Comments
It comes down to a “I” versus “We” perspective. I like to think I live my life and direct it with a “We” perspective. (Call bullshit if you’d like). The problem is most people these days have not an ounce of a communal bond outside of their family; leaving them with no motivation to help or work for others outside that realm. College is where the “We” is the strongest and you bring up a good point about first jobs out of college. Once the step is made into corporate America, it’s harder to get out rather than starting in a more “productive” field/company.
Do work son.
It comes down to a “I” versus “We” perspective. I like to think I live my life and direct it with a “We” perspective. (Call bullshit if you’d like). The problem is most people these days have not an ounce of a communal bond outside of their family; leaving them with no motivation to help or work for others outside that realm. College is where the “We” is the strongest and you bring up a good point about first jobs out of college. Once the step is made into corporate America, it’s harder to get out rather than starting in a more “productive” field/company.Do work son.
I agree with you for the most part. Wall Street is at or near the bottom of the barrel of industries when it comes to providing a tangible societal benefit. I completely agree with you (and with Malcolm Gladwell) that successfully starting up a company or performing other meaningful work will, for most people, lead to a happier and more rewarding life than will working for the sole purpose of chasing more and more money.
I don’t think, though, that working for the sole purpose of making money indicates moral bankruptcy of any sort. I know plenty of good people who have graduated or are about to graduate from business school. Rather, I think that the majority of people that follow the path put forth by business school are risk averse more than anything else. It is much easier to do well in the prerequisite courses to gain admission to undergraduate business school and guarantee a decent chance at a well-paying job coming fresh out of undergrad than it is to start up one’s own successful business or find a job after undergrad that allows them to do something worthwhile while guaranteeing the comfortable lifestyle that many business school students are used to.
I agree with you for the most part. Wall Street is at or near the bottom of the barrel of industries when it comes to providing a tangible societal benefit. I completely agree with you (and with Malcolm Gladwell) that successfully starting up a company or performing other meaningful work will, for most people, lead to a happier and more rewarding life than will working for the sole purpose of chasing more and more money.I don’t think, though, that working for the sole purpose of making money indicates moral bankruptcy of any sort. I know plenty of good people who have graduated or are about to graduate from business school. Rather, I think that the majority of people that follow the path put forth by business school are risk averse more than anything else. It is much easier to do well in the prerequisite courses to gain admission to undergraduate business school and guarantee a decent chance at a well-paying job coming fresh out of undergrad than it is to start up one’s own successful business or find a job after undergrad that allows them to do something worthwhile while guaranteeing the comfortable lifestyle that many business school students are used to.