Five years after Acton MBA, was it worth it?

by Valeri Tkeshelashvili

The Acton School of Business is a ten-month accelerated MBA program in Entrepreneurship taught by successful, practicing entrepreneurs and based on experiential learning, Socratic discussion, and case study methodology.

Acton makes three promises to its students: You will learn how to learn, learn how to make money, and learn how to live a Life of Meaning.

You can find more information on its website: actonmba.org.

As an educator myself I often wonder what difference my courses or programs make. In this article, I aim to reflect on my experience with Acton MBA. I have often been asked how Acton contributed to my development, but this is the first time I have written about it.

So, was it worth it? Absolutely, and here’s why…

1. It changed my life. Yes, I know these are big words, but since attending Acton I know exactly what I want to do in my life.

‘If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.’ — Lewis Carroll

Acton has a very unique course which they call Life of Meaning. You won’t find anything like it in traditional business schools. During the course we worked to identify our strengths, pin down and conquer our fears, and define our future. It made me dive deep into myself and pose hard questions, such as:

  • What are my strengths and weaknesses?
  • What is my calling?
  • What are my fears?
  • What are my most important values?

The course provides you with the questions you should answer before facing the challenges of an entrepreneurial journey. In answering these difficult questions, you find out exactly what it is you want to do with your life.

At the end of the program we had to present our findings to a group of mentors. I got some powerful feedback from the mentors that forced me to think bigger and aim higher.

How I defined my life back then is how I’m living it up to this moment. Having a clear understanding of my calling and goals helped me stay strong in difficult times. It helped me stay focused on the most important tasks. And eventually, it helped me become the master of my fate and captain of my soul.

2. I still learn from Acton.

Acton gives you so much that you’ll keep unpacking all the knowledge many years after graduation.

This is how it works. During the first five months, you study remotely. In the second five months, you’re engaged full time. The program is so intensive you have to put in at least 100 hours of work each week. Of course, such intensity leaves less time for reflection, but it’s a great trade-off. You don’t waste one or two years on education, away from the real world. You spend five months studying what really matters. Afterward, you have a lot of time to reflect and dive deep into the subjects that interest you most.

After five years I still go through Acton materials from time to time. In my businesses, the usual challenges of sales, operations, and finance come up, almost always with different facets.

Particularly useful are the frameworks that Acton gave me. The frameworks are a set of questions you will want to ask when you face a challenge. Asking the right questions is key to finding the right solution. Starting a new business, raising money, dealing with people, organizing your sales process, you name it. Acton has frameworks for many occasions.

So, don’t think that you are done with your education when you graduate. Keep digging in. There are many diamonds hidden inside the huge amount of study materials.

You’ll find no fluff there. The program was designed by successful entrepreneurs and everything they include in the curriculum is practical and usable. I know because I have tested it in many ways — both working for others and working on my own companies.

3. I became more confident on many levels.

The program is so intensive and so challenging that if you complete it nothing will seem difficult after that.

It’s not like I haven’t done difficult things before. I studied at two graduate programs at the same time when they overlapped for six months. I worked full time while attending evening classes for almost two years. But the challenge I saw in Acton was incomparable. There I tested the limits of my abilities.

When I first read about the 100-hour week I thought it was an exaggeration. I thought it was not possible, or that if there were 100-hour weeks there would be only a few of them. I was wrong. From the first week to the last one we never saw relief. There was a week — so-called Hell Week — when I slept 1–2 hours per night.

In the middle of the program, a teacher asked us to raise a hand if we were considering quitting the program. Unexpectedly for me and to my great relief, almost everyone raised their hands. Eventually, three of my classmates decided that they were not ready to cope with the intensity of the program, and they quit. The rest of us completed the program — exhausted, sleep-deprived, and full of excitement.

Check out the Navy Seals training videos on YouTube. It’ll give you a good understanding of what it takes to complete the program.

4. Acton showed me the full picture of an entrepreneurial journey.

At Acton, they don’t teach Managerial Economics, Financial Accounting, or any other stand-alone courses from traditional business schools.

Early in my twenties, when I was working on my first company, I decided to enroll in an MBA program. Soon I realized that everything they taught there had nothing to do with entrepreneurship. Traditional MBA programs were designed for a corporate world and for different times. It’s another topic. If you’re interested you can read my other article here.

Acton’s approach to business education is different and unique.

An entrepreneurial journey has very distinctive stages. This is how it usually works:

  • You start with an idea, explore the opportunity and decide to launch. Lots of things are going on at this stage. Acton prepares you very well with courses like Opportunity, Pre-launch, and Launch, and focuses on how to bootstrap your business. The Life of Meaning course will help you deal with your fears, better understand your mission, and keep yourself motivated in hard times, to mention a few.
  • Then you have to set up a production line, hire people, set up a sales funnel, and keep a close eye on finances. Courses like Customers, Operations, and Cash & Valuation will give a solid understanding of business foundations.
  • Next, if you are successful, you face a growth stage. You’ll face absolutely different challenges in this stage. You’ll probably have to raise money, make capital investment, hire more people, and expand your operations and sales efforts. Courses like Growth, Raising Money, and People will give a good understanding of this stage.
  • And, finally, you may decide to sell your business. Acton has a course even for this stage.

Each of these stages requires mastery of different tools, techniques, and theories. Acton will give you plenty of that.

5. At Acton I trained my mind to make better decisions with less information.

Consider this: If you make the right decisions most of the time, and make them fast, success is guaranteed.

During the program, you go through hundreds of cases where you face hard business situations. Each time you have to identify a problem, formulate assumptions, and make decisions based on the limited information. And then, you have to present your solution to the class and defend it from the furious attacks of your classmates.

Do it 200+ times and you’ll form a critical thinking and problem-solving mindset.

For me, every class was like a real-life business meeting where I had to face a challenging problem and come up with a solution. I felt the difference in my level of thinking as soon as I returned to the real world.

I learned not only how to make better decisions, but also how to explain and defend those decisions, how to articulate my point concisely. You will never learn these skills in a traditional classroom environment.

Of course, this is not a full list. Acton had a profound influence on my personal and professional qualities from many angles. It will take a much longer article to write about all the aspects.

I did thorough research on the Acton MBA program before I applied. I knew exactly what kind of educational experience I wanted. Acton worked out perfectly for me.

Feel free to contact me if you’re considering the Acton MBA and need more insight from a graduate.

I’m an entrepreneur, educator, and a technology enthusiast.

As an educator, I teach and mentor, but most importantly I develop educational courses and programs, and build educational institutions.

Currently, I’m fully devoted to creating transformative learning experiences through two educational startups — Mercatus Academy (developing professional training programs) and Mercatus Business School.

You can read more on my blog at valeritkeshelashvili.com

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