See if you can defer your Harvard MBA for 1 year and try to do TechStars. That way you can try your hand at entrepreneurship and still have the Harvard MBA in your back pocket if things don't work out in a year.
From the Harvard MBA website: How long can I defer my acceptance?
Candidates should submit applications only for the year they plan to enter the MBA program. Postponements and deferrals are granted rarely and are considered on a case-by-case basis.
So it is no guarantee that you can defer it, but if you can, I think the deferral route is the best option.
Many of these deals may have special terms as well. At a minimum VCs will get 1x and at times 2x or 3x of the first money made. That way, VCs can protect their downside while investing in some of the companies that have the biggest potential.
That being said, these valuations are still quite high.
Hey Ramit, great comment. I think your educational experience was unique in how applicable it is to what you now do--for a non pre-professional degree.
For someone outside of college, how'd you recommend people learn those topics?
Working at a company at facebook or google increases your human capital, increasing one's opportunity cost.
This can make it harder to leave the stable and growing pay check and try to create your own thing. This is not to even mention the growing amount of responsibilities that come with age (mortgage, family, etc.).
I think you may be taking this story too literally.
The moral of the story is to pursue happiness over extreme financial success at the expense of happiness.
The story also acts against the deferred life plan. Many people endure things they hate in order to make a lot of money. In most cases, this is probably a bad thing... especially when there are better alternatives.
The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathon Haidt is great. It intertwines philosophy and psychology while providing a lot of insight on how a life is well lived.
If you want a more thorough guide of how to eat for a dollar a day and a personal account, day by day, of two people who did so for a month check out http://www.dollaradaybook.com/it-starts-today
Do you think there could be an MBA program that teaches relevant things to what start ups do? and what would it teach?
I feel in some ways part of what Y Combinator does is like an extremely condensed business school that is relevant to start ups.
YC "spend[s] much more time teaching founders how to pitch their startups, and how to close a deal once they've generated interest." YC also invites speakers to share their knowledge http://ycombinator.com/w9speakers.html
I think the ultimate educational experience for a future start up entrepreneur would combine what Ars Digita University taught (programming) http://www.aduni.org/, web design, the relevant aspects of business, a bit of elementary worldly wisdom http://ycombinator.com/munger.html, and to top it all off the school would require the students to work on a start up as a side project.
Jumo is a similar idea to idealist but I think/hope jumo can do it better. Chris did a great job to help organize the movement supporting Obama during his campaign, if he can do something similar for a bunch of non-profits a lot of good could come from his efforts.
It is also a big deal because it is Facebook's co-founder who is doing this. Almost any company that he is launching would get press.
The intent of my message was not to state that all witnessable acts of good must be viewed with suspicion. Rather, my goal was to express how acts of good could also be in one's (or in this case a companies) self-interest. I commend what apple did with their homepage.
Not that I think apple is thinking this (though they might be) but by putting this on their homepage they attract positive attention from the interweb and are cast in a very positive light. This in the long term leads to good branding and more sales.
Heartfelt condolences and good business can go hand in hand.
From the Harvard MBA website: How long can I defer my acceptance? Candidates should submit applications only for the year they plan to enter the MBA program. Postponements and deferrals are granted rarely and are considered on a case-by-case basis.
So it is no guarantee that you can defer it, but if you can, I think the deferral route is the best option.