Is An MBA Worth It?

Hi, I'm Evan Carmichael. Welcome to another edition of Ask Evan. In today's video, I'm going to answer a question from one of my YouTube viewers, Al, who was asking about an MBA program and if it's worth it or not. So he wrote in saying, hey, I was going to ask you about spending over $100,000 on an MBA program from a reputable school. Is it worth it? Statistically speaking, I know it differs from person to person. Thanks, Al. So, Al, it does differ from person to person. I can only share what my experience is and hopefully that helps you. So I didn't get an MBA program. I went to University of Toronto for undergraduate degree and I decided not to go get an MBA mostly because I was already running my business and I thought I'd get a lot more value from being in my business and getting the hands-on experience than spend another couple years at school and working out of textbooks. So that was my own personal decision. I think it depends on what your background is. I came from a business school background and I was already running businesses before I went to university, so I had a lot of the fundamentals in place already. I knew a lot of the concepts before I started my company. If you're coming from an arts program or science program or computer program and you may not know some of the business fundamentals, then it could be more valuable for you. If you're going to go get a job, then it definitely is a lot more value for you than it is for being an entrepreneur because a lot of companies are looking for people who have that MBA. It kind of separates you from everybody else and it's almost expected now that you would go get an MBA to keep, you know, moving up. One of the biggest benefits that I find from an MBA program is being able to make some good connections. So depending on what your business is going to be doing, if you plan on selling to big companies down the line, all the people who you go to school with, most of them will end up going to work at big companies and they'll be moving up in the ranks. And you'll have contacts and friends to be able to talk business with, potentially sell to down the line. So you can make a lot of great connections from joining an MBA program that you might want to think about as well. So those are all my personal thoughts. I'd like to turn it over to Jeff Ogden, a friend of mine from Find New Customers, to get his perspective as well.

So the question was asked, is spending $100,000 for an MBA is it really worth it? Well, my— and actually, I don't have an MBA, I decided not to get one, but I really think the answer is a qualified maybe. Because there's really 3 things you get from an MBA. You get knowledge. So you got 2 years of learning from some excellent professors. You've got skills that you're going to develop over that time. And you've got networking, because the alumni network has a lot of value. In addition, there's an intangible value that is prestige, that comes from a prestigious school. So, you know, there are benefits that come from it. However, it's a big expense, and the thing you got to say is, can I get that on my own? For instance, I don't have an MBA, but I have— I went to a prestigious undergrad school, Notre Dame. I accumulated massive amounts of skills over the 30 years since I've graduated. I've accumulated tremendous knowledge. In fact, my content is taught in the MBA program there, and I don't have an MBA. So can you do it without spending $100,000? Yes, you can, but it takes a long time. So if you've got the money and you want to move fast, get your MBA. But if you're tight on money and you don't and you're not in a huge rush, then do, do it on your own. You don't need to go to school. I hope that helps.

So while I hope that was useful, I hope my thoughts were helpful and Jeff's thoughts as well. If you guys liked the video, please give it a thumbs up below, and I also love to hear your thoughts on getting an MBA program if you want to leave a comment under the video. And stay tuned for the next episode.

Mm-hmm.