Harvard MBAs with aspirations of wielding six figures in the corner office may consider buckling up. Shark Tank’s tough-talking investor Kevin O’Leary explains that many Harvard MBAs are setting themselves up for failure.
Why? A sweet consulting deal could be what they think is prize money, that is, it could sabotage their goals and their potential careers.
O’Leary teaches at Harvard Business School. Every year, he sees eager young faces flocking to the consulting world. For many of them, securing a slick desk job is the key to success: lots of money, prestigious companies, business cards. It is also one way to mediocrity.
He says that two-thirds of his Harvard MBA students raise their hands when asked if they want to work as consultants. His answer is not exactly a pat on the back.
Randstad Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsTainted meat
“Look, if you want to drift into hell on Earth, stay 24 months in a consulting firm and you are tainted meat for the rest of your life”, O’Leary continued.
While consultants merely provide advice, entrepreneurs act. O’Leary sees many young professionals opting for comfort rather than impact.
This does not prevent elite institutions from touting their placement rates at top consulting and finance shops. Elite colleges such as Stanford, NYU, and UPenn continue to churn out students for well-paying careers.
“What I try and do is disrupt a few of them in every class that I go into at the beginning of the program, saying, ‘If I can get four of you to abandon your drift into mediocrity, then I’ve done a great job here.”
Harsh? Perhaps. But certainly dramatic. But let’s be honest here. O’Leary hasn’t exactly been known to sugarcoat his messages.
Nevertheless, he understands why the business path appears attractive. The consulting job wage can easily begin at $250,000 to $350,000 immediately upon graduation, with fabulous office space and lunch included.
This is highly attractive to those young students with rent to pay, loans to finance, and the need to maintain a respectable life.
But O’Leary is determined to say that money isn’t the same thing as freedom.
Entrepreneurship, on the other hand, is presented as the gritty option. It involves ramen dinners, apartments with roommates, and no vacations for years. But then there is the payoff: “Once you make it, you can call your own shots” if you can just “make it” as an entrepreneur.
The danger isn’t in failing. The danger is in not striking out. Stay in another person’s ecosystem for too long, and you may never leave it. Too many people live their whole lives in another person’s ecosystem.
Gen Z is known to care already about working for meaning, flexibility, and autonomy. O’Leary’s words touch exactly on that nerve of Generation Z.
It is now a question of whether his advice will be taken and the next big business will be built, or whether the temptation of money, security, and well-structured careers will prevail again.
Comfort is a danger
It can be a threat to creativity. It can be a deterrent to innovation. Comfort is one of those non-Apple products that sounds wonderful. Whether his students will listen to it is yet to be known.
One thing is for sure: a quiet and comfortable life in consulting does not impress this shark.
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