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Real life qualifications galore,
but that didn't count with the company.
The degree did.
Should I or shouldn't I go after my MBA?
At the time, I was 40 years old, president of my own advertising agency in San Francisco, had co-founded and expanded a consulting company in association with Tom Peters...and for the first time I felt devalued because I didn't have one. Actually, I also felt ticked off.
A good friend of mine who was managing director of a regional office of a large multi-national general business consulting company had been observing the success I had in developing the Customer Service practice of my consulting company. He thought it was something his office (and possibly the company) should develop too and rather than start from scratch, why not buy my company and employ me to head it up? So he floated the idea to his colleagues. Naaahh, they said. True, we may need the expertise, but she doesn't have an MBA. My friend was majorly apologetic and disappointed -- what he admired was my passion for customer service which, he said, was worth more than an MBA. But his hands were tied.
"Disappointed" doesn't even begin to describe my feelings. I was evangelistic about customer service and the opportunity to have a bigger platform and megaphone with my friend's consulting company was a golden opportunity. But to have the deal fail BECAUSE I didn't have my MBA -- IOW I wasn't one of "them" -- knocked me flat.
So I thought, well maybe this is going to be a hindrance for the rest of my career...maybe I should go get it? See, I was starting from the basis that "they" were right: Not having an MBA was a big problem for me. My career experience was not good enough without it. I was not good enough without it.
This kind of thinking kept me busy for several days. I looked into the local universities (Cal, Stanford) and the graduate school test. WIth my Cal undergraduate degree and practical experience I might squeeze in. But the more I thought about the practical implications (time and cost), I had to ask myself, is this really worth it?
And that is when I decided to pray about the situation. I really needed to go to the root of the problem BEFORE I made a decision about what action to take. See, the core of my despair was that I felt worthless. My identity was somehow devalued because I didn't have an advanced degree. This made me ask, What is my real identity? Is it made up of education, money, career role, corporate position?
My true identity is created by Spirit, by the Creator of all living things. And this Spirit made me whole and complete in the divine image. So how could I be less than anything? How could I be missing anything? How could I not have what I needed if the Spirit gave me all of Her love and goodness?
Evidence of this had been so obvious throughout my career -- in fact, the conditions presenting the opportunity to own my advertising agency AND the consulting company could only have come about through the divine hand. I knew this without a doubt. So why now would my divinely-led career suddenly be not good enough?
I can't describe the wave of relief that swept over me. The bouyancy and joy...I felt LOVED by the Spirit! And I knew I had and will always have whatever I need to live my life, expressing the qualities of the Divine.
Now I could evaluate the pros and cons for enrolling in graduate school for all the right reasons, not out of despair. And I decided not to get my MBA. The passion just wasn't there...and I had already come to experience the satisfaction in working with passion.
Looking back over several years, I made the right decision for me. But most important, I learned a very valuable lesson about what constitutes my true identity. Read more blogs from Grits .
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