Burton Simmons’s “Adventures in Business School”

In the speeches we listened to during our commencement, we were showered with the advice of others. Everyone from Tom Brokaw to Theodore Roosevelt:

You are educated. Your certification is in your degree. You may think of it as the ticket to the good life. Let me ask you to think of an alternative. Think of it as your ticket to change the world.
-Tom Brokaw

and…

To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.
Theodore Roosevelt

Let me offer my own quote for posterity. Please, somebody, quote me on this view of education:

Give a man a fish and you’re out one fish; teach a man to fish and you can charge him for the education.
- Burton Simmons

… it’s a business model.

And I officially have my MBA. It started in August of 2006 and, this morning, ended when I was hooded and handed my diploma.

I’ve been asked several times if it was “worth it”. I can’t answer - I simply say that there has not been enough time to put the experience in its proper historical context. I can say, however, that I would not have finished had it not been for the support of my family and friends - and that I’ve made even more good friends while being here. To all of them, I can say “Thank you.”

Next step in the adventure: Find a job, which has thus far been eluding me.