Why you ask?
Because number one, I have no time for it. Or money. I have already spent $10,000 on it and don't feel a cent has been added to me or my knowledge. OK. If I need a text book on Operations Management I know where to find it. But that is it. With three kids and an executive role, a husband, a mother and a few siblings and a slew of darling friends, a $10,000 a cent MBA is off the chart.
Yet, I love to learn. So here are my substitutes for MBA:
- Self Studies - I just read a summary of a book " Never Eat Alone" by Keith Ferrazzi and watched a YouTube summary of Mindset by Carol Dweck and and reading Strategic Leadership for Turbulent Times by Mark Kriger. I enjoyed them, I learned something, and I applied my learning too. Now there is the value.
- Mingling with people who are better than me - in any topic. My mother, VP of another company, Persian Women in Tech meetings, an artist friend, my son the YouTube Wiz.
- Certification - a fraction of the cost of an MBA; yet I can pick and choose. Loved my Biodesign Graduate Certificate at Stanford and Essentials of Management at UC Berkely.
- Building an Organization - this is the mother of any MBA.