My "no-pay-MBA" journey
I want the knowledge of an MBA, but without the debt or opportunity costs, here's what I am doing!
What do you do when you want the knowledge of an MBA, but feel the potential opportunity cost of getting one is too great? This is something I am grappling with, so I figured I'd write about how I'm dealing with it using a nopaymba.com model!
Recently, I was debating about going back to school for an MBA, one focused around higher level management and/or finance.
The reason is quite simple: In the long run, I want to get better at owning and/or running businesses at a senior level of management. Some of what I've learned I've done by owning my own companies, but I also feel aspects of an MBA would enable me to have more mental models and skills to get even better at solving business problems.
But the opportunity cost around this made me hesitate. (Two years of lost wages potentially unless I have a side business that takes off). I also looked into the data, and most MBAs seem to have a negative return: see here.
So I did some research and tried to grapple with this problem. How could I get all the knowledge I want to solve the problems and do the things I'm passionate about, without having such huge costs? It was while researching this, that I came on this resource:
https://www.nopaymba.com/
and the accompanying book (which I now own): Don't Pay for your MBA by Laurie Pickard.
I created a more personalized set of courses available online from major universities and top business schools that I have compiled into my own personalized MBA. One that is possible at a much lower cost. The book also acts as a guide for the interpersonal networking pieces, and capstone projects typically present through MBA coursework that I can do on my own. I'm also talking with my manager at work for ways I can immediately start applying the material, and of course I plan to apply it in my own business ventures as well.
The first course I completed as my orientation course is here (available for free): https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn/home/welcome I strongly recommend this course to anyone at any age. I compiled a 39 page "operations manual for the brain" based on my notes from the course:
The power of this is it will enable me to put in place systems that allow me to think and learn far more efficiently and quickly than I was before, and with much greater retention of the material. I chose this course as an introductory/orientation course to the MBA I'm doing for myself because it will enable me to learn and synthesize other courses faster and more effectively, while allowing me to apply and retain the material as well.
However, I'm doing this mostly on my own. So I would like your thoughts as well, especially those of you with a background in business or who have done more traditional MBA programs. Where are my blind spots? Are there other things that are not obvious, which I should consider? What do you think of the curriculum I'm focusing on below? Is there something missing? What are some ways I can "learn by doing", while still allowing me time for my studies?
Also, if any of you find that this resonates with you, I would enjoy learning together with you and talking about the material together! Definitely reach out to me if this is the case and I'll try to organize a group:
