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Advice From MBA Entrepreneurs

Many decide to pursue the MBA as a way to learn what it takes to start their own company.

But what exactly does the degree teach entrepreneurs?

Robin Madell, of Business Insider, recently spoke to 22 MBA graduates, who have launched their won successful companies, about what they’ve learned from b-school. Here’s what they said.

DON’T PRIORITIZE SALARY FIRST

While many choose to pursue the MBA in hopes of increasing their salary, experts say solely prioritizing money, especially in your first job, isn’t the way to get ahead.

“It is very unpopular to tell a new graduate that … they need to not care about finding a job that pays a lot of money,” David Reischer, attorney and CEO of LegalAdvice.com and graduate of City University of New York Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business, tells Business Insider. “Nevertheless, this is the best piece of advice I received at business school. Do not care about salary at your first job. The most effective way to get ahead is to learn about the industry at any cost, even if that means working for free or for very little money.”

FAIL AND TAKE OWNERSHIP

Failure is part of the learning experience. But what’s important in the long run is now how many times you’ve failed, but how many times you’ve taken ownership of your failures.

“The best advice that I received from business school was to see yourself for who you are,” Bryce Bowman, founder of People First Planning and graduate of Washington University’s Olin Business School, tells Business Insider. “For one class, my professor lined up several speakers whose business startups had all failed. Each speaker had reasons for why their businesses had not yet succeeded, and all pointed blame at outside circumstances that frankly had nothing to do with their business venture … After class, I approached my professor to ask the reason for this strange lecture. He responded [that] he wanted us to see founders that did not succeed because they were unwilling to admit ownership to their business challenges, which prevented them from overcoming these challenges and eventually succeeding.”

Taking ownership of failure, experts say, is a critical characteristic of a strong leader.

“Leading with vulnerability requires courage; but the payoff for being open and candid when communicating mistakes is a stronger work environment that supports the learning necessary for innovation, breakthroughs, and success,” Kirsten Blakemore Edwards, MA CPCC, Executive Facilitator at Partners In Leadership, writes for Inc.

BUILD RELATIONSHIPS OVER JUST “NETWORKING”

The MBA is a gateway into building your network. But, experts say, it’s important to intentionally build relationships in the MBA and not just network for networking sake.

“One invaluable piece of advice that I picked up at business school was to build relationships; don’t network,” Shaifali Aggarwal, founder and CEO of Ivy Groupe and graduate of Harvard Business School, tells Business Insider. “Building relationships with others results in more authentic and genuine relationships where each person is truly [in]vested in the other person’s success, and there is more give and take. On the other hand, networking tends to be more superficial and can come across as self-serving. As a founder, this advice has been instrumental; by building sincere relationships with others, I have been able to grow my business and in turn, have been able to help others grow theirs.”

Check out the rest of the advice MBA grads gave here.

Sources: Business Insider, Inc.

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