By Emily McHugh

When I applied to Columbia University's Graduate School of Business in 1999, I was not exactly sure what I was going to do once I received my MBA My hope was that I would "figure it all out" in business school and ultimately end up with a job that was better than the one I had prior to business school.

Business school gives one the chance to be exposed to various opportunities from a unique vantage point. It is like being offered a smorgasbord of career paths from which to choose. However, in order to choose, it is important to ask yourself whether you are able to muster the passion necessary to be truly happy and fulfilled in a particular career. Being passionate means that you love something so much that you are willing to suffer and endure whatever it takes to be successful.

I came to the realization of my passion during the last semester of business school, when I took an entrepreneurship course. It was in that class that I finally "figured out" what I was going to do with my MBA: go into business for myself. After all, I would be able to put everything I ever learned into practice and become a true-blue businessperson. And so I did -- I started my company, Casauri, a maker of fashionable laptop carrying cases, shortly after graduation.

WORTH AND LIMITATIONS.  Having an MBA is not a prerequisite to becoming an entrepreneur, nor does having an MBA guarantee or improve your chances of success. However, the MBA teaches important business principles and helps to remove some of the uncertainty of the business landscape by providing those who pursue it with the vocabulary and components of business.

The entrepreneur can expect that having an MBA will add credibility to a potentially incredible endeavor, develop confidence to overcome the impossible, and build stamina and endurance to persist in the face of uncertainty. Having an MBA will NOT, however, make starting a business easy, save the entrepreneur from struggles and hardships, or teach the entrepreneur everything he or she needs to know about starting and running a company.

It is probably safe to say that, with or without an MBA, most entrepreneurs have to start their businesses from scratch without the benefit of a defined and predictable path. Most entrepreneurial skills have to be learned on the job or during the course of the entrepreneurial journey. Moreover, despite the commonalities that entrepreneurs share, each entrepreneur's experience is unique and highly dependent upon the type of business venture being pursued.

VALUE AND NEGOTIATION.  The two most valuable lessons I learned in business school that helped to prepare me for entrepreneurship were valuation and negotiation. One does not become an expert in these areas just by taking a class. However, one does become aware of the tools needed to be effective in assessing value (valuation) and in persuading someone to give you what you want (negotiation). Ultimately, communication unifies the above two skills. Being able to express or "sell" yourself expedites entrepreneurial success, since most of your time is spent trying to convince people to believe in you.

In business school, valuation is mainly taught from a financial perspective in terms of pricing companies or securities. However, valuation principles are applicable to any situation in which determining worth is in question. Since most of the decisions entrepreneurs make involve applying limited resources to limitless needs, being able to intelligently allocate resources is essential. As entrepreneurs, we have to constantly determine value – of products, employees, customers, and services. This skill requires extensive practice, since it is not an exact science.

Negotiation is another nebulous area, as it involves many independent factors to be effective. Negotiation is the ultimate team sport. It is like a dance where you try to avoid stepping on the other person's toes. To negotiate requires research and as thorough an understanding of the given situation as possible. We negotiate at every level of our lives, starting from infancy to adulthood. Entrepreneurship requires endless negotiation, the ability to overcome obstacles, inspire others to action, and risk losing what you actually may want to obtain.

ACCESS AND CHOICE.  The MBA provides the tools that improve the fledgling entrepreneur's ability to assess value and to negotiate. Beyond these skills, the MBA enables access to an incredible network of contacts that can help propel a business forward.

It is a personal choice whether the business school experience will be appropriate for each entrepreneur. I would not recommend to someone contemplating entrepreneurship, as a fixed formula, to wait, go to business school, and then start a business. However, I would recommend seizing opportunities as they present themselves. In my case, I am very glad the opportunities included an MBA

Emily McHugh founded Cameleon International, Inc., which does business as Casauri, in 1999, after earning an M.B.A. from Columbia University Graduate School of Business. She currently serves as chief executive officer and creative director. Headquartered in Fort Pierce, Florida, Casauri designs and makes fashionable carrying cases for laptop computers. Emily's sister, Helena McHugh, is president and designer, and a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York. Prior to graduate school, Emily McHugh worked for Banque Nationale de Paris in New York and Mexico City. She also spent a year in Oaxaca, Mexico, teaching English to Mexican telephone operators and violin to a local mariachi band. Emily is a 1990 graduate of Swarthmore College, where she received a B.A. in linguistics, French, and Spanish.