Running a successful business is not an easy feat no matter what your age. Yet there are teenagers, like Kalief Rollins, the winner of the 2009 National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge, who were able to benefit from business start-up education and learn not only the value of a dollar, but how to claim the value of his life.
Tag: value
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Some Of The Easy Teeth Whiteners Available On The Grocery
The clinical treatments and the good and easy teeth whiteners are accessible in the market place are the most frequent methods employed for making your teeth lighter. But many do not tend to realize the value of natural good and easy teeth whiteners which…
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Black CEO says that the MBA is Worthless
Filed under: Personal Finance, Careers, Dr. Boyce Money
I don’t have an MBA, and I’ve never wanted one. I earned several masters degrees and a PhD, but I never found the MBA to be a good investment when it came to actually understanding what I needed to do with my career. But unlike many of my friends, I wasn’t headed to Corporate America. Instead, I wanted to be a professor and entrepreneur, neither of which requires an MBA.
My brother Lawrence is also getting an MBA from Cornell University, but he doesn’t want a job. Instead, he wants to utilize the network of the university to build his own business. I agree with this philosophy, since ownership is the key to building black wealth in America. Understanding business from all angles is critical to running a top notch organization.
What is surprising, however, is that there are some captains of corporate America who are starting to question the value of an MBA when attempting to reach your goals. Mind you, this does not imply that the MBA cannot be an important piece of your long-term career plan, but it says that the MBA might not be enough.
What is underemphasized by many who attempt to climb the corporate ladder is the necessity to learn the intangibles that come with corporate success. Fenorris Pearson, CEO of Global Consumer Innovation, Inc., argues that playing the game at the top of corporate America involves a set of skills that are not taught in a typical MBA program. Instead, Pearson believes that things like managing your peers and forging the right alliances can be critical to corporate success.
In his new venture, called “The Corporate Climb,” Pearson lays out strategies he learned during his years as a Vice President of Global Consumer Innovation for Dell. He explains that having the credentials is only the beginning when it comes to managing life at the top. An MBA can open doors, but you must have quite a few additional skills to walk through the doors that have been opened.
As someone who has taught MBA students for over a decade, I can also testify that the MBA should only be one piece of your long-term career building plan. This expensive piece of merchandise will only give you top value if you use it in the proper way. At the same time, I advise all of my business school students to get an MBA eventually, since you need all the advantages you can get. Based on my experience teaching MBA students, here are some quick thoughts on the value of the MBA.
1) The MBA is important: Some kind of post-secondary education is highly recommended for most college students, especially those majoring in business. You shouldn’t just go to college: you should be at the top of your class and get as much education as you can. Mediocrity should not be on your agenda.
2) You have to supplement the MBA with work experience: Just having the degree doesn’t mean that companies are going to come banging down your door. You have to do internships and find other valuable experience which will help you convince your employer that you can add to the bottom line. All the credentials in the world are not nearly as valuable to a company as a person who knows how to “make it rain” financially.
3) The MBA is expensive: Many schools simply sell MBAs, meaning that if you pay a massive amount of tuition, you are probably going to get the degree. The average price of an MBA has spiraled to over $100,000 and now serves as a major money maker for most business schools. So, if you make this investment, make sure you are getting what you expect on the back end: more job opportunities and a salary high enough to pay off your student loans. If the investment pays off, then this can be a solid career move.
4) Make sure your school helps you to find a job: The quality of the career placement center is incredibly important. If the school can’t place its graduates into high salary positions, then you may find yourself disgruntled.
5) Don’t leave your fate in anyone else’s hands: The National Black MBA Association and other organizations hold networking conferences which can allow you to find opportunities for yourself. Do not be afraid to use these resources. You have to pound the pavement and create your own luck. Don’t let anyone take control of your future.
6) Consider owning your own ship: Remember that the key to financial, social and psychological freedom is to own something. Black entrepreneurship is incredibly important to our community and your corporate experience can be a good foundation for you to own your own business. So, as you build your career in corporate America, don’t be afraid to create your own job via entrepreneurship. It might be the most rewarding decision you ever make.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Finance Professor at Syracuse University and author of “Financial Lovemaking 101: Merging Assets with Your Partner in Ways that Feel Good.” To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here. -
Dr. Boyce Money: What Chris Brown Can Learn From R Kelly
I spoke about Chris Brown on CNN not too long ago, and I am sure I’ll be talking about him now. Given his shocking 5-year probationary smackdown by a judge, I am sure that Chris has been humbled beyond belief. Even I was surprised to see him get this kind of punishment. But the truth is that when we make personal decisions, there is a piper to be paid, and sometimes that piper wants more compensation than we wish to deliver.
But Chris Brown is far from finished, and I expect him to be back on top in no time. The Chris Brown brand is still worth hundreds of millions of dollars, since corporate America is very good at working around the emotional to secure the logical value of their financial assets. Here are some things to keep in mind as Chris tries to rebuild his damaged career.
If R. Kelly can make a comeback, anybody can. I confess that R. Kelly honestly sickens me. I hate to say it this way, but the idea of a man doing what he is alleged to have done to that little girl makes me as angry as you can ever possibly imagine (and yes, I do believe that was him in that video). What disturbs me even more is that the American public let the entire issue go as soon as Kelly released another hit song. This sends a horrible message to young black women, reflecting the fact that our culture does not value their well-being as much as we value a hit song about going to the club, getting drunk and having irresponsible sex at the end of the night. Sorry homeboy, but you can’t serenade your way into my good graces or that of any other conscientious African American. There are simply some lines entertainers cannot cross and being found “not guilty” is not the same as being found innocent.
In spite of the obvious critique one can thrust on R. Kelly, the oddest thing is that R. Kelly’s model of career recovery can serve as an instruction manual for Chris Brown. The first segment of that lesson came during R. Kelly’s first BET interview after the child pornography allegations were made. During the interview, I noticed that the singer kept repeating the phrase, “Just focus on my music.” He repeated the phrase several times, as if his business manager had coached him to do so. Upon processing things later, the translation here was simple: If you are focused on his music, you will forgive him for the fact that he’d been accused of doing nasty things to someone’s 13-year old daughter. Yes it’s sick. Yes, it bothers me. But yes, it’s the truth and it has worked quite well for R. Kelly and his business model (notice that it took him a while to release his latest album after the trial – the public typically cools off and forgets almost anything you’ve done if enough time passes).
Similar to the R. Kelly situation, I’ve noticed that many female music fans really don’t care that Chris Brown is a man who seems to believe that it’s O.K.to use a woman’s face as a punching bag. The report that he used the big ring on his finger to inflict even more damage to Rihanna reminds you of the late Ike Turner. I hope he takes his domestic violence counseling seriously, since he can’t go on living like this.
In the music industry, fans are quick to accept eccentric behavior from celebrities. The public took no issue with Michael Jackson’s problematic relationships with children and there are many other scenarios in which a hit record is enough to take value judgments off the radar screen. Personally, I find myself in constant shock at the kind of language Lil Wayne’s female fans allow him to use to consistently disrespect them. It almost seems that a polite Lil Wayne would not sell nearly as many records as the drunken, outlandish rapper who appears to have a serious drug problem.
Value systems aside and with the focus back on business, a black entertainer can rebuild his career after an arrest by doing the following things:
1) Just say that Jesus healed you. People always buy that one. It worked for R. Kelly. References to God, even when insincere and blatantly hypocritical, invoke deeply entrenched sensibilities within African Americans. Personally, I need proof that you’ve really changed, not just your statement that Jesus came to you in a dream.
2) Sincerely apologize. People always love a good apology.
3) Make a really hot song. If people are dancing to your music, they usually forget that you might want to punch out their daughter or think that she’s a garden tool. Unfortunate, but true.
4) Remember the truth: People really don’t care that much about the celeb’s personal life and are looking for an excuse to forgive him anyway. I recall speaking to someone who works for a major network, and I was in awe over how nonchalant she was about the R. Kelly situation. All she kept saying was, “Well, he ISSSS talented,” as if his talent forgives him for any sin committed in the present, past or future. I bumped into a radio exec at a major station in Chicago and listened to him essentially say the same thing when explaining why his station adjusted its policy against playing R. Kelly music shortly after the allegations. The fact is that people just don’t care.
Chris Brown’s brand will remain strong in the music industry. From a business standpoint, it is also ironic that being arrested may actually be a “coming out” party for him, reinventing him for the world as the tough, borderline thug that many women seem to love (remember when Lauren London said she had a crush on Ol Dog from Menace to Society – a man known for being the craziest gang banger in entertainment history?). These coming out parties are common, as you typically see young actresses do sexy magazine covers on their 18th birthday (i.e. when “Simply Raven” became “Sexy Raven” and when Rudy Huxtable played a prostitute in her latest film), or male entertainers trying to look mean and “tatted up” to break away from their good boy image (i.e. Lil Bow Wow….I mean, Bow Wow). It’s all about branding. The craziest thing about the Chris Brown situation is that being arrested for beating a woman could actually work to his advantage. So, our adoration for Chris Brown (actually, other people’s adoration, since I don’t respect any man who would do that to a woman) is a reflection of our society and a nasty look in the mirror for all of us. I should say, however, that I consider Chris Brown to be far different from R. Kelly: He is still a very young man who makes mistakes and could possibly become a decent adult with guidance and significant intervention – which spoiled celebrities seldom receive.
Don’t be surprised to see Chris hanging out with more rappers, where it’s actually a good thing to be arrested. He’s going to have a few more tattoos, a meaner “mug” on his next album and present a brand that embraces the hardcore image, yet not so hardcore that you won’t believe him when he sincerely apologizes and says that Jesus saved him. The new Chris Brown will be interesting.