Things I Learned in Business School

Yesterday, in class, a Professor started off the discussion with the following challenge:
"Name a CEO or business leader who you admire."

Well, damn. People I admire are half-mad writers and musicians who changed the way I looked at the world and engaged my fellow humans, but only after they wasted their youth in varying degrees of inebriation and alienation from their loved ones. Also, my father.

Admire's a strong word, professor.

The pathetic thing was...PEOPLE STARTED RAISING THEIR HANDS and naming CEOs they admired. Steve Jobs. Bill Gates. Alfred P. Sloan. The Shamwow! Guy.*

I'll break that down for you: Full-grown, educated adults were expressing their admiration for wealthy businessmen whom they had never met. CEOs who, if the balance sheet demanded it, would kick them in the nuts and slap their children.

Again, I must be nearing the end of my time in Business School, because I already knew the following: Business School does not turn out soulless sycophants. It attracts them and charges them tuition.

The great thing? At the end of the discussion, the professor expressed his disappointment at our "admiration." "Don't admire the CEOs," he said. It was awesome.

* Again, I made this last one up. Only I admire the Shamwow! Guy, and I didn't get called on.