Often when I give speeches at MBA schools I am flabbergasted by some of the questions that I get from the students. It is often as if the students have no concept of reality and that is very scary for a potential employer. It is even more scary to think that they are being taught by a professor who has never actually been in business but only studied the theory and written textbooks on how to do something that he has never succeeded at.

Nevertheless this is the case at many MBA schools. Not all are like this of course, many other top MBA instructors have been in business and come back to teach. But the superstars of business are still in business and they have no time to teach.

Some more critical of MBA schools say that; Those that can't teach and I myself have turned that phrase in a good number of articles on business. Indeed, this may be the case at many MBA schools. There are many things they do not teach you at MBA schools and there are many books written on the subject.

One of the most serious things that they do not teach is that when doing business deals they are never cut and dry or black and white. Everything is a shade of gray and you need to be a little bit pragmatic in order to make it work. I hope you will consider all this in 2006, as perhaps it might help you in your business career in the future.