My son wants to be a boss, what degree should he look into?

[Matagorda 118]

Im in the medical field and my wife’s an attorney, neither of us particularly business minded.  

My 17 year old junior is a natural businessman, he’s had a small business since he was 14 and makes a nice little sum each month.  He’s always selling and looking for ways to make money.  

He’s interested in starting his own business,  doing some sort of corporate ladder/ceo tract, and recently has been talking about being an oil&gas trader. 

If you’ve gone this route, or know some one who has, what advice as far as degree type do you recommend? 

 

 

[Da Fino 2,772]

He should learn how to stack knots and call shots. 

[We’reTexas 1,473]

I’d add copping drops as well. 

[gurt 748]

something technical for undergrad and an MBA

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Matagorda said:

Im in the medical field and my wife’s an attorney, neither of us particularly business minded.  

My 17 year old junior is a natural businessman, he’s had a small business since he was 14 and makes a nice little sum each month.  He’s always selling and looking for ways to make money.  

He’s interested in starting his own business,  doing some sort of corporate ladder/ceo tract, and recently has been talking about being an oil&gas trader. 

If you’ve gone this route, or know some one who has, what advice as far as degree type do you recommend? 

 

 

Start business, be a boss. He's already done the first part. As soon as he makes his first hire, he's the boss.

[Gatorubet 30,185]

1 hour ago, Matagorda said:

Im in the medical field and my wife’s an attorney, neither of us particularly business minded.  

My 17 year old junior is a natural businessman, he’s had a small business since he was 14 and makes a nice little sum each month.  He’s always selling and looking for ways to make money.  

He’s interested in starting his own business,  doing some sort of corporate ladder/ceo tract, and recently has been talking about being an oil&gas trader. 

If you’ve gone this route, or know some one who has, what advice as far as degree type do you recommend? 

[Dbeasy 15,040]

27 minutes ago, gurt said:

something technical for undergrad and an MBA

Yes. For sure. And if possible, a top school MBA, because his job out of MBA school will put him on an accelerated management track.

As far as the functional roles, it depends on the industry. If it’s tech, get on the product side for awhile, in product management for example. If it’s a consumer goods company, it’s the brand manager. 

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12,301]

2 hours ago, Matagorda said:

Im in the medical field and my wife’s an attorney, neither of us particularly business minded.  

My 17 year old junior is a natural businessman, he’s had a small business since he was 14 and makes a nice little sum each month.  He’s always selling and looking for ways to make money.  

He’s interested in starting his own business,  doing some sort of corporate ladder/ceo tract, and recently has been talking about being an oil&gas trader. 

If you’ve gone this route, or know some one who has, what advice as far as degree type do you recommend? 

 

 

I've gone that route and would tell him to skip college and take whatever $ amount you're planning on forking over for school and using it as seed money for whatever venture he wants to start.

[Blotto 23,487]

https://scentsy.com/

I know a guy..... he's got 2 buttholes, so you know he's legit. 

[52-80 19,144]

Theres no such thing as a boss degree.

But business degrees, specifically MBA, is the nearest track to operational roles. JD is also common among executive management across all industries, because they tend to be involved in signficant transactions that become career-makers. 

So from a statistical perspective those are overrepresented. The bigger driver though is simply job performance and politics/soft skills. You get promoted to management because you do your job well and get noticed by the right people. 

[LebongJames 1,791]

Tell him to be his own boss and start his own thing or he can climb the corporate ladder of hell for decades.

 

[CooterBrown 18,002]

Sounds like he's already his own boss. GTFO of his way.

 

[ztejas 43,411]

Accounting or finance. 

[LonghornJones 837]

Snappin' necks and cashin' checks.

Edited September 27, 2023 by LonghornJones

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12,301]

If he (or you) are hellbent on college, and he wants to own a business, he should major in psychology. Owning a business is about finding a problem and then convincing everyone around you that you can solve it better than others. That means understanding how people think/work and how talk to people so they believe you.

He should then take some computer programming classes and befriend as many of his classmates as possible. Then join as many extra-curricular groups geared towards entrepreneurs and network his fucking face off. 

[Incredulity 11,648]

2 minutes ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

If he (or you) are hellbent on college, and he wants to own a business, he should major in psychology. Owning a business is about finding a problem and then convincing everyone around you that you can solve it better than others. That means understanding how people think/work and how talk to people so they believe you.

He should then take some computer programming classes and befriend as many of his classmates as possible. Then join as many extra-curricular groups geared towards entrepreneurs and network his fucking face off. 

Kinda sounds like Jobs

[Incredulity 11,648]

3 hours ago, Matagorda said:

He’s interested in starting his own business

This.
 

Tell him every single person he interacts with will be completely full of shit.  Some in hurtful ways, others in harmless ways.  Learn to sniff out bullshit.

Don’t be overly impressed with large competitors, potential customers or vendors.  It all boils down to people and the above.  Also, the large organizations with impressive shiny facades are as fucked up as any other business.

[tx 3 putt 76,868]

Storage units and multi unit rental sites. He can start asap 

very steady flow of $$$

 

also, this business has great margins …..

 

Edited September 27, 2023 by tx 3 putt

[Chewbacca 7,766]

Step 1 - start company

Step 2 - hire people

Congratulations, now you're a boss!

[Chewbacca 7,766]

1 hour ago, ztejas said:

Accounting or finance. 

I have degrees in both (actually concentrations in both).  While they are vital to understanding my business, they don't really help me run my business all that much.  Operations is its own thing.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,508]

Starting your own business vs rising up in the corporate ladder can be two different skill sets. Personally I wouldn’t want to be a C-level in a S&P500 level company for any amount of money. Besides having to prove you’re the  1% of the 1% to get to that level, you have to sacrifice too much along the way. And there are more people that get pushed off that ladder along the way.

[Neonmoon 38,129]

8 hours ago, Matagorda said:

Im in the medical field and my wife’s an attorney, neither of us particularly business minded.  

My 17 year old junior is a natural businessman, he’s had a small business since he was 14 and makes a nice little sum each month.  He’s always selling and looking for ways to make money.  

He’s interested in starting his own business,  doing some sort of corporate ladder/ceo tract, and recently has been talking about being an oil&gas trader. 

If you’ve gone this route, or know some one who has, what advice as far as degree type do you recommend? 

If he wants to be a trader, get a degree in finance. It’s also a good degree for general business. He can add an MBA or MFA if it suits his fancy. But you don’t need it to be a trader. 

[gurt 748]

I've always wondered what the "Management" degree was for and why one would opt for that in undergrad. I took some management classes in undergrad and in grad school and still have no idea. I would assume it would be to set someone up to be a manager out of school, but I think that rarely happens, right?

Yeah it seems pretty anachronistic at this point. A relic of a bygone era when you’d work for the same company for 30 years.

[Sbbruin 21,829]

He needs to buy a Range Rover.

[Upgrayedd 5,810]

Organized crime is the way to go.  Cap a few snitches and you are on your way up the ladder.  

Send me his CV.

[52-80 19,144]

5 hours ago, BeardIP said:

I've always wondered what the "Management" degree was for and why one would opt for that in undergrad. I took some management classes in undergrad and in grad school and still have no idea. I would assume it would be to set someone up to be a manager out of school, but I think that rarely happens, right?

I'm not aware of anyone with 'management' degrees parachuting out of school into roles with meaningful reporting either.  The point is to provide the basic understanding commonly demanded of managers - stats and analyses, financial statements, marketing processes, etc. 

My huge employer actually has a small in-house curriculum for all of those things, required for all employees to graduate from junior status.  All the senior managers pick up in-depth supplemental training along their track.  Only 2 or 3 in the SVP/EVP cohort have actual business degrees from universities.

[Guest]

If he's sincerely wanting to be a leader of other people, tell him that no job is beneath him and start by being willing to understand the roles of folks who will be reporting to him. Then focus on improving the work environment for those people, either directly or indirectly. Help them improve their own productivity/ paycheck. Those people eventually in his charge will do anything for him after seeing his work.

Leadership/ influence isn't gained by degrees or titles.  It's how you interact with and treat others.

He can be a "boss" anywhere, prison even;   What does he want to do with that desire or passion around leadership?

[Guest]

Edit: choose the degree that fits the field he's most interested in, and then run with it.

[Fudge Nuggets 19,187]

He should join the military. 

[StassneyHorn 6,573]

He already has a business, hire someone and he's a boss. 

Skip college and start a fencing/gutter company in whatever city he likes.

[FartingMonk 3,606]

Tell him to knock a girl up.  Name the child Axiom.  Be single and complain about the deadbeat girlfriend that don't pay child support.  But he don't need no woman It's him and Axiom #boyboss

[orange dream 1,246]

18 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

also, this business has great margins …..

 

but it ain't easy

[ghostofbobr 1]

Human Dimensions of Organizations at UT.  Learn how to frame different perspectives, see the forest and the trees.  Learn the technical at internships etc. as universities are proving grounds you are bright but technical training in job roles typically lags industry.

[Snake Diggity 4,619]

On 9/27/2023 at 9:28 PM, BeardIP said:

I've always wondered what the "Management" degree was for and why one would opt for that in undergrad. I took some management classes in undergrad and in grad school and still have no idea. I would assume it would be to set someone up to be a manager out of school, but I think that rarely happens, right?

I got a Management degree from McCombs.  Aside from what comes with any degree from McCombs, it has been largely worthless.  My intent in choosing that major (at 19) was, in fact, to be “a boss”.  At that time they had several sub disciplines to choose from, one was entrepreneurship, one was organizational management, can’t remember the others.  I chose entrepreneurship and got very very little out of those courses (although I was a very poor student).

To the OP, there’s a big difference between being the owner vs being an exec.  If your son wants to be an owner, then he should get technical credentials in whatever field is most closely related to the kind of business he wants to own.  That would likely be all he needs, but if he wants general business management expertise then he could add an MBA on top of it.  If he wants to be an exec, then Finance is probably the best undergrad degree to get, and he’d be best served adding a JD, MBA, or CPA on top of that; if he wants to be an exec of a company in a certain industry, then again a technical degree related to that field for undergrad would possibly be better than Finance.

Edited October 2, 2023 by Snake Diggity

[ChiTownDoc 21,139]

On 9/27/2023 at 12:23 PM, Matagorda said:

Im in the medical field and my wife’s an attorney, neither of us particularly business minded.  

My 17 year old junior is a natural businessman, he’s had a small business since he was 14 and makes a nice little sum each month.  He’s always selling and looking for ways to make money.  

He’s interested in starting his own business,  doing some sort of corporate ladder/ceo tract, and recently has been talking about being an oil&gas trader. 

If you’ve gone this route, or know some one who has, what advice as far as degree type do you recommend? 

 

 

Go to med school.  There’s a lot of barriers to entry so you get to compete on the ground level against others doctors who tend to suck at business.  When you get to a higher level you have a built in advantage because other doctors would rather work for you vs the hospital or some conglomerate - but you better actually be good at business or the aforementioned hospitals and conglomerates will crush your ass.  

[DalTxHornFan 3,097]

19 minutes ago, ChiTownDoc said:

Go to med school.  There’s a lot of barriers to entry so you get to compete on the ground level against others doctors who tend to suck at business.  When you get to a higher level you have a built in advantage because other doctors would rather work for you vs the hospital or some conglomerate - but you better actually be good at business or the aforementioned hospitals and conglomerates will crush your ass.  

Don't disagree with the med school part, but they need to learn how to read a financial statement and learn about internal controls and segregation of duties when it comes to the business side of a medical practice.  So many dumb docs when it comes to $.

[ChiTownDoc 21,139]

47 minutes ago, DalTxHornFan said:

Don't disagree with the med school part, but they need to learn how to read a financial statement and learn about internal controls and segregation of duties when it comes to the business side of a medical practice.  So many dumb docs when it comes to $.

Yep.  I was a business major in undergrad.  I’d suggest that over an MD/MBA.  Those are so watered down you only get the letters after the name.  Most of the MD/MBA’s I’ve run into don’t know jackshit about a business.  

[CooterBrown 18,002]

On 9/28/2023 at 5:37 AM, Fudge Nuggets said:

He should join the military. 

He said he wants to be a boss not a 20 year old with a cheating wife and a Dodge Charger with a 7-year note at 28%.

 

[Fudge Nuggets 19,187]

Just now, CooterBrown said:

He said he wants to be a boss not a 20 year old with a cheating wife and a Dodge Charger with a 7-year note at 28%.

 

Sounds like a great path to becoming a boss.  Got to project the appearance of a completely unsustainable lifestyle before you make it.

[CooterBrown 18,002]

2 minutes ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

Sounds like a great path to becoming a boss.  Got to project the appearance of a completely unsustainable lifestyle before you make it.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,508]

In my limited experience, to grow into a senior exec in large corporations, you have to be in a group that is effectively a future exec's group. You don't ask to be included, you don't sign up, you're invited. And while it comes with perks, it can be challenging. They're setting you up for success by giving you the experience and contacts to be fast tracked to leadership.

Now if you work in a large corp and you don't think this exec-to-be group exists, you're not on track for senior leadership. For the rest of us schmucks, they have probably have listed us as 0-2 promotions as our max growth. If you have that tag, you're not going anywhere except being a worker bee.

[DalTxHornFan 3,097]

18 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

In my limited experience, to grow into a senior exec in large corporations, you have to be in a group that is effectively a future exec's group. You don't ask to be included, you don't sign up, you're invited. And while it comes with perks, it can be challenging. They're setting you up for success by giving you the experience and contacts to be fast tracked to leadership.

Now if you work in a large corp and you don't think this exec-to-be group exists, you're not on track for senior leadership. For the rest of us schmucks, they have probably have listed us as 0-2 promotions as our max growth. If you have that tag, you're not going anywhere except being a worker bee.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,508]

Just now, DalTxHornFan said:

haha. The sooner the worker bee know they're not going to be CEO, the better it is for them. Middle mgr is their ceiling.

[horn4life 3,759]

What does he think he can't learn on his own?  IF he actually wants to be "a boss" he needs to simply convince you and your wife to invest in his business venture, double the amount you would have spend on College.  His entrepreneurial bent, is the primary and in a way, sort of the main part of being a boss.  Challenge him!  Ask him what he thinks he will gain working for others that would be more advantageous than 4 years of working building his own business?  

I would also challenge you to seriously think of bankrolling him to at least some degree, if a legitimate opportunity presents itself where he could indeed be the boss?

Not to shit on an education nor the experience that work can give you.  Most folks that become "Bosses" in some manner learn to profit for themselves, in the same business they were in prior to going on their own.  Now it may very well be that going to and having the college experience is important to both him and you all.   I also the know the idea of him not going to college is an odd and likely unacceptable thought to you and your wife.  And nothing wrong with that.

I guess the question I would first ask him is. "Do you want to be a boss?  Or the Boss?" The answer is important.

Oil Trading... not sure at all how that leads to being more than a boss, and likely never the boss.  He's got the inclination, and unless he is in love with some particular field, just get a business degree.  But again, I knew a Stanford MBA that bought the company I worked at, and that guy had no fucking idea what he was doing.  Sales drive everything, and if you can sell you can do anything.  So get a degree and learn to sell.  Or manage a business as well or better than the competition.  All are paths to being the boss, rather than a boss.

 

 

[Neonmoon 38,129]

From my corporate experience, to be in the c-suite 

You need to do either 

A. Be an expert in said industry and learn business/finance/accounting 

B. Be an expert in business/finance/accounting and learn the industry 

 

[Guest]

On 9/28/2023 at 10:19 AM, FartingMonk said:

Tell him to knock a girl up.  Name the child Axiom.  Be single and complain about the deadbeat girlfriend that don't pay child support.  But he don't need no woman It's him and Axiom #boyboss

[atomheartbevo 89,623]

On 9/27/2023 at 2:28 PM, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

I've gone that route and would tell him to skip college and take whatever $ amount you're planning on forking over for school and using it as seed money for whatever venture he wants to start.

Get him drop-shipping crap on Amazon, or cheap rentals somewhere. Or both.

Guy I know makes a very decent amount of money selling accessories for whatever new phones just came out. He has everything lined up in China or wherever, he has the goods rebranded to his brand names (and he has multiple brands he sells the same stuff under on Amazon), and when they start becoming available, he is selling them as fast as it takes people to login to Amazon and type "iPhone 15 case" or whatever.  I looked at one of his items and mentioned that it only had a thousand reviews, and he mentioned that over 10,000 people bought one, and he made $50,000 off of that one item.

Of course, I don't think he's ever met many of the people who work for him.  Which he prefers.  He has a lot of stuff automated, he spent a lot of time in China lining up contacts at factories, he keeps his product assortment fairly low, and he's never stuck with a lot of inventory.  And he plows a lot of the money into properties.

[BabaYaga 15,286]

15 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Get him drop-shipping crap on Amazon, or cheap rentals somewhere. Or both.

Guy I know makes a very decent amount of money selling accessories for whatever new phones just came out. He has everything lined up in China or wherever, he has the goods rebranded to his brand names (and he has multiple brands he sells the same stuff under on Amazon), and when they start becoming available, he is selling them as fast as it takes people to login to Amazon and type "iPhone 15 case" or whatever.  I looked at one of his items and mentioned that it only had a thousand reviews, and he mentioned that over 10,000 people bought one, and he made $50,000 off of that one item.

Of course, I don't think he's ever met many of the people who work for him.  Which he prefers.  He has a lot of stuff automated, he spent a lot of time in China lining up contacts at factories, he keeps his product assortment fairly low, and he's never stuck with a lot of inventory.  And he plows a lot of the money into properties.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,508]

I thought drop shipping only made money for people who offered online classes to teach drop shipping.

seriously I was under the impression that the current state was that drop shipping requires a lot of knowledge, work and/or luck. There are plenty of people who will help set up and run your drop shipping for a fee. You take all the risk and split the profits with them.

[Michael Knight 12,976]

You're kid sounds like a dick, discipline him before he grows up to ruin the world.