A few days ago, I was sitting in the waiting room for an appointment with a chiropractor I have known for a while. I first met him when he was working out of another office, but recently he opened his own practice. When he came into the room, he told me he had been “putting out fires” all morning where he was directing his staff, answering questions, and dealing with everything that comes with running a new office. As soon as he said that, I was taken back to the time when I was co-founding a small health tech startup in Ethiopia focused on healthcare workforce management.
Even with our small team, I learned that building a startup meant doing much more than working on the actual product. At different times, I was involved in HR (hiring interns), finance, marketing, product management, and whatever else needed to get done, while also working another full-time job. As we were talking, everything came back to me, including how often I was learning as I went. I remember feeling like, I think and I hope I’m doing the right thing, but I’m also figuring this out as I go.
Now that I am doing my MBA, I look back at that experience differently. Business school did not teach me that a company needs marketing, finance, good people, or clear processes because my startup experience had already taught me that. What it has given me are tools and a better way to organize some of the things I was already experiencing. That’s also why the research on physician leaders resonates with me because it shows that many important leadership skills are learned through actual experience, mentorship, and working with others, not only through formal education. PubMed
That conversation reminded me that experience and education can help in different ways. You can learn business by doing it, making decisions, solving problems, getting some things wrong, and improving as you go. Education can give you useful tools and frameworks, but you still have to figure out how to use them in your own situation. For me, doing it first and then learning the business side more formally has helped connect the two. Now it’s all about applying both in a new setting.
What do you think? Do you need formal business education to run a business well, or is experience the better teacher? I would love to hear your perspective or experience in the comments section here or on my social platforms as I keep reflecting on what I’m learning about healthcare, business, technology, and the systems that connect them.
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