Should you go to Business School? (Three qualities for success)

This week I shared my thoughts on the question “Should you go to Business School?” Check out the three qualities I identify for success!

VIDEO SUMMARY

So we are talking about the question “should you go to business school.” But this video is not just for students entering college, because I think this is a much bigger question. The real question here is, “what qualities make someone a good fit for the business world?” And as someone who has gone to business school and worked in the business world, I think sharing my perspective might be helpful for some people.

Now before we get started, I have some caveats here. The first issue, is I am going to be talking in stereotypes. And I realize that in business there is a full spectrum of different personality types. However, if you are in business long enough, you will notice certain qualities tend to pop up over and over again. And there is a reason why those qualities pop up. So I think it is helpful to talk through some of these generalities.

The second issue, is that I am not dealing with the question, “should I or should I not go to college at all.” In this video, I am talking to people who have already decided they want to go to college, and are just picking a major. So these are people who are looking around and trying to decide, should I go to business school, or medical school, or law school, or engineering, or liberal arts, or any other major. So the question is “Should you go to business school?”

When you are at a University, you may start to notice that different types of people tend to be attracted to the different academic programs. If you have a theater school, certain types of people are going to be attracted to the theater program. And the same thing with Engineering school and business school, certain types of people are attracted to those academic programs. And what I find is that there is three main qualities in students that are attending business school. And if you have these qualities, you might be a good fit for business school and working in the business world.

The first quality is “you enjoy talking about money.” You will notice that the students in business school love talking about money. In fact, they talk about money all the time. They talk about counting money. They talk about making money. They talk about investing money. And in fact, if you end up going to business school, realize you are going to be in classes for years, and all that you do will be to talk about money. Now this is really important, because there are a lot of people out there that are uncomfortable talking about money. And that’s okay, because there is other things in life besides money. But just realize, if you don’t like talking about money, you are going to be miserable in business school. On the flip side, if you are someone like me who really enjoys talking about money. You are going to love it. It’s great!

Now I want to provide some further clarification on this, because there is some nuance here that is easy to misunderstand. When you have all these business students standing around talking about money, it is easy for someone outside of business school looking in to misunderstand this talk about money as greed. Now this is an important distinction, because what is going on is not greed. Now granted, there are going to be some business students who are just greedy people. You are going to meet them. But what I have found is that is not the majority of business students. What is really driving the conversation of business people, is they are concerned with creating value. It’s not really about the money. The money is a means of tracking the amount of value created. What business is really about is making the world a better place. And that is why it is so exciting to talk about money with your fellow business students.

The second quality you find in business school is people who enjoy competition. Competition is part of the culture of business school. Students compete for grades. They compete for internships. You will probably do business case competitions. Now some schools are more cut-throat than others, but I have always found some level of competition in the business schools that I have visited. And I realize that a lot of people don’t like competitive environments. And if that’s the case, you are probably not going to do well in business school. But I love competition. The way I look at it is, competition is about you and your peers pushing each other to be your best. And the reality is you are not going to win every time. In fact, you are going to lose a lot. But you have got to be constantly driven to outperform your competition. Because part of the journey of business school, is you are going to be exposed to a lot of different elements of business. And what you are looking for is that talent you have, or that business niche where you can out compete your peers over and over again. All this competition is forming you into the ultimate business person.

So now the third quality is the one that people like the least. So if you didn’t like the first two, you are really not going to like this one. The third quality is hard work. Business school is hard work. I don’t know any other way to say it. So if you are not a hard worker, business school is going to be miserable for you. If you are looking for an easy major, business school is not the place to look. You have to be a high performer. These are not easy classes. From my perspective, when you are someone like me, who finds business fun and interesting, I actually enjoy the hard work. You have to embrace it. Because you are not just doing homework problems. And you are not just putting together some presentation. What you are doing is building yourself as a business person, and that is a really cool thing, but it takes effort. You have to put in the work.

So those are the three qualities of someone who is successful in business school: they enjoy talking about money, they enjoy competition, they enjoy hard work. Now there is a reason why you find these things in business school. It’s because you are going to find these things in the rest of your career in business. Business school is just preparing you for the business world. So for the rest of your career, you are going to be talking about money, you are going to be engaged in competition, and you are going to be doing very hard work.

So I hope this video was helpful to you. This is just my perspective, and you might want to ask other people what their experience was like. My hope is that when you pick a college major, or a career path, whether it is business or some other major that you find what fits the best with your defining qualities.

Leave a comment down below letting me know what you think! If you find these videos helpful, please subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Neither Zach De Gregorio or Wolves and Finance Inc. shall be liable for any damages related to information in this video. It is recommended you contact a CPA in your area for business advice.