My Mba Investment

My MBA Investment

Benjamin Franklin once said "If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest" (Franklin, n.d.)

In the course of deciding to pursue a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) with an emphasis in Marketing, I had the opportunity to reflect on my many, what seemed to me at the time, insignificant accomplishments. I will share with you now that my opinion of those same accomplishments today is vastly different then it was before my epiphany.

In the early years of my life, like most children, I took for granted the education that was forced upon me; often complaining about having to go to school while simultaneously trying to scheme my way out of having to go. I must admit that I was fortunate to be not so bright in my scheming endeavors and for the most part suffered the fate of a good education by default. While my parents were always the source of good rhetoric on the subject, I never fully realized the inherent value of an education and for that matter the value of each sermon from my parents until I had children of my own.

The value of a good education is not only that defined in the words of Benjamin Franklin, but it is also in our ability to embrace and apply that knowledge to achieve a better future for us as individuals as well as for our families and society by and large. My decision to pursue a MBA and what I expect to gain by completing the program is based on three separate and very different personal justifications.

The first is based on the investment I made in the Montgomery GI Bill when I was first commissioned in the Navy in 1993. I had the opportunity to put money into the education program, although not a lot (about $1,800), in return for serving my country. The money invested was designed to fund additional education benefits outside of what I would receive from the military directly. For me that meant the pursuit of a graduate degree. True to Ben Franklin's words, "An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest" (Franklin, n.d.). In this case my original $1,800 investment will pay nearly $30,000 in educational benefits (United States Department of Veterans Affairs, n.d.).

The second reason was another of self interest. Although all of the education that I have completed to date has