Educate to make better servants

The purpose of education is to equip the student to better serve others. Whether business or health, science or philosophy, the goal of education is to make the person a more effective servant of others. A business person learns how to write lean canvases and design validation tests to help guide others towards a profitable business model. A surgeon learns the human anatomy so he’s able to heal the person. A philosopher thinks deeply about the issues plaguing his society in order to find solutions that will benefit all (Maxwell).

The motivations of business students often doesn’t include others. The fast-track to ‘manager’, the most common business leadership title, is often through a business degree. In the military, the people with Bachelor’s degrees are officers. They are addressed as ‘sir’ and saluted by all enlisted personnel. In the Pharisee’s day it was one’s rigorous study of the law that elevated one to a position of leadership. The best managers, officers, and religious leaders are those who learn much to be of much value to others.

We are learning, not ultimately to advance our own careers, but to be better value-creators, consultants, and leaders. Our customers and employees will benefit from the effort we make in these few months to grasp the broad spectrum of topics needed to establish a quadruple bottom-line in business. This keeps me humble and motivated to continue when it’s not convenient. The thought of helping others keeps me going when I consider an MBA from Kellogg School of Management would be more widely recognized, which in turn means I’d be more widely recognized. Adding value to others is this MBA program’s bottom-line.

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