Getting fired on my first day wasn't so bad after all...

at the very least it got me an article in the Wall Street Journal this morning.

A Learning Experience

Professionals urge people who have been laid off not to lose perspective, and to try to grow from the experience. That was the case for Gerry Wilson, who says getting laid off turned out to be a good thing.

Mr. Wilson graduated from Princeton in 2000 and took a job with MicroStrategy Inc., an Internet software company. After two months training at company headquarters in Virginia, he headed to New York to begin work. The first day, he was told that his consultant position was being eliminated.

Mr. Wilson parlayed his expertise with MicroStrategy's software into another consulting position, making nearly double what his salary would have been. He later started consulting on his own and saved enough money to attend business school. There, he developed a plan for his own business, yoonew inc., an online exchange that lets sports fans bet on a shot at Super Bowl or World Series tickets, long before the event. He raised funding from angel investors and now runs yoonew.

"All I have done has been because I was laid off on my first day," he says.

- From, "Turning That Layoff Into Career Catalyst", WSJ

Age and the entrepreneur

There's been a lot of debate about the optimal or ideal age to start/run a startup. From Marc Andreessen to Fred Wilson to other celebrity tech bloggers.....everyone has an opinion. I don't have anything major to contribute on the topic other than my gut leads me towards the younger end of the spectrum (and my brain is swayed by pretty charts).

During my bschool days when I jumped on the bandwagon and tried my hat at "strategy" consulting, I remember interviewing with some partners from BCG. I recall them stressing the high level of involvement that new hires (fresh college grads or MBA grads) have on important engagements. 2 points stuck with me.

• First, they contended that younger people with little "domain" expertise tend to develop expertise from a completely different perspective. When tasked with solving difficult problems, they are not clouded (consciously or subconsciously) with preconceived notions of how things work or should work. They may also use seemingly irrelevant experiences to answer a question.
  
• The second point was that if you look at geniuses and their greatest accomplishments or contributions to society, "greatness" tends to take place at an early age (Einstein, Mozart, etc.).

While we may accept these observations as truth, many have asked for quantifiable data. While reading Marc's post tonight, I remembered an overhead projection slide from a class on tech entrepreneurship. I would like to direct everyone to Professor Edward Roberts at MIT Sloan. In his book "Entrepreneurs in High Technology: Lessons from MIT and Beyond" (especially Chapter 3) Roberts addresses "The Makings of an Entrepreneur."

The data is compelling.

It Ain't No Fun (If The Homies Can't Have None)

The New Enron = Fuqua Cheating Scandal

Is it just me or is this absolutely ridiculous. 34 Duke bschool students face disciplinary action for cheating on an open book take home exam. Let me get this straight. Cheating on a bschool open book take home exam. What an f*cking oxymoron! (remember my original disclaimer)

I didn't attend Fuqua, but I can say that I've graduated from probably the most rigorous bschool program in the world. (Yes I'm proud to be a Sloanie!) Having spoken with peers from other top bschools, I believe team work and task delegation are the most important skills that one learns from bschool. Bschool is unlike any other masters program. The focus is not on depth, but rather breath of knowledge. No matter what bschool you attend, it is IMPOSSIBLE to do all of the reading and all of the work alone. If you manage to do so, then you've completely missed the whole purpose of bschool and just flushed 100k+ down the $hitter. Why you may ask? Bschool is about breath of business knowledge and learning to work with differnt types of people. Rote memory is best left to the bookworms. (Yes, this is an MIT graduate talking.)

Now, I don't know all of the details so I can't really comment. What I can say is collaborative effort and group thought is paramount at most bschools. These precepts coupled with effective time management dogma teach bschool students (the corporate leaders of tomorrow) to work together for a common goal. Does this mean cheat? Absolutely not. I am too much of a competitor to ever condone cheating. At the same time, institutions of higher learning cannot preach teamwork out one side of the mouth and then at the 11th hour except students to study and perform in a completely different manner.

Is Fuqua getting a bad rap for what happens everywhere? Absolutely. At the end of the day, bschool is about having fun and making life long connections with friends. Even Snoop can tell you, it Ain't No Fun (If The Homies Can't Have None) and he didn’t need to go to Sloan or Fuqua.