Success

Yesterday two interesting articles have caught my attention in the Business section of September's issue of Esquire.

• The first article presents Darius Bikoff's success story behind his 9 year old vitamin water brand (for which Coca Cola paid him 2bn). His story is interesting and demonstrates that a very simple idea can bring good fruit, even when others keep telling you how your idea is crap and won't work. The path of Bikoff's success wasn’t simple or without turnarounds, he nearly went bankrupt at one point. When asked for advice he would give to others he gave the following answer: First, don't pick something because you feel it's opportunistic. Chasing opportunity means the opportunity is already gone. Pick something that's close to your personal wants and passions, because then, when things get tough, you have the incentive to stick it out. The key point here is to pick something that's close to your personal wants and passions, and I really think nothing could be closer to the truth about growing a successful Hedge Fund. If one does not find passion in how and what you do then most likely you shouldn't put yourself on the line for such a thing in the first place.

• The second article takes an original but interesting look at MBAs. The author decided to spend two years doing an MBA at Harvard worth $ 100'000 to find out whether entrepreneurial talent is something they can teach you at school or something you are born with. The author seems to suggest that to a large degree an MBA can help, well at least it seems to open some doors. For example the hedge fund and private equity industries are dominated by business school graduates. Also at HBS they teach you a range of possible actions to consider on close to 800 cases over a period of 24 months, this clearly will provide experience that will be directly applicable, and since you have learned on past examples you should by this point avoid making mistakes that you might have made otherwise. However as the author also points out, "Great fortunes are after all made by individuals with wildly varying degrees of education". In the end of the day, an MBA does not mean much, yes clearly you might have the initial edge but if you've got what it takes anyway, an MBA might be a waste of money and time after all.