A few years ago, my friend Simon was doing exceptionally well in business. He was that typical African entrepreneur who had built something from sweat, prayer, and sleepless nights.
His hardware company was booming. Employees greeted him like a hero every morning. Clients spoke of him with respect. And his neighbors had already started calling him “Boss.”
Simon’s life was a testimony that hard work pays until one day, he decided to chase a different kind of glory.
“Jerry,” he told me one afternoon over lunch, “I’ve decided to go and pursue my MBA.”
I almost choked on my sadza.
“An MBA? Why, Simon? Your business is doing well already!”
He looked at me with that academic seriousness and said,
“I want to sharpen my mind, improve my strategy, and become a global entrepreneur.”
I sighed. “Simon, you are already global your products reach three provinces!”
But he wouldn’t listen. In his mind, the MBA was the final ingredient missing in his success recipe. I tried to warn him, “Don’t abandon the business that feeds you to chase a certificate that flatters you.”
He smiled and said, “Jerry, I want to be excellent.”
And just like that, Simon began a journey that would test the difference between knowledge and wisdom.
The Academic Honeymoon
The first few months were exciting.
Simon started dressing differently suits every day, even on Saturdays. He began using new vocabulary: synergy, organizational behavior, disruptive innovation.
He was now attending lectures, submitting assignments, and quoting famous authors on WhatsApp. His status read:
“The future belongs to the educated entrepreneur.”
He even bought a new laptop one that made him look like he could launch a satellite.
But while Simon was learning the theory of running a business, his own business was learning the theory of survival without him.
At first, he tried to balance both worlds attending classes during the day and signing invoices at night. But soon, the assignments started piling up like unpaid bills. Group discussions stretched until midnight. Examinations came every other week. And the business began to bleed quietly.
The Slow Collapse
The first red flag was when his sales started dropping.
When clients called, the receptionist would say, “The boss is in class.”
When suppliers came for payment, they were told, “He’s writing exams.”
By the second semester, customers had stopped calling altogether. The accountant resigned. The sales manager joined a competitor. Even the security guard started selling cement bags on the side.
Simon was busy writing essays on “Strategic Management” while his real-life strategy was failing miserably.
Two years later, Simon graduated. His gown sparkled under the sun. His family was proud. His Facebook timeline was on fire. The caption under his graduation photo read:
“Never stop learning. Education is the key to success.”
But when Simon walked back into his office the following Monday, the key refused to open the door — literally and figuratively.
The Return of the MBA Graduate
The office was quiet.
The reception desk was covered in dust.
Only two employees remained: the driver and the cleaner.
The revenue had dropped to almost nothing. The few customers who came looked at him with pity. His business, once vibrant, now looked like an abandoned classroom.
Simon sat in his office, staring at his framed MBA certificate on the wall. It looked expensive but it couldn’t pay rent.
He whispered to himself, “Maybe I should have studied how not to kill your business while studying business.”
Reality hit him hard: he had lost two years of business momentum, countless clients, loyal employees, and money all in the name of “sharpening his mind.”
The Miseducation of Simon
Simon’s story isn’t unique. It is a mirror of our African misunderstanding of education.
We were told to “go to school and accumulate riches,” yet no one told us that riches don’t come from certificates they come from applied knowledge, discipline, and consistency.
Simon went to school to improve his business, but the system taught him how to write essays, not invoices; how to analyze companies, not grow one.
He graduated with a distinction in Strategic Thinking but failed in Practical Doing.
He became fluent in Harvard language but illiterate in cashflow.
And like many African entrepreneurs, Simon learned the hard way that traditional education often prepares you to manage someone else’s business not to build your own.
Education vs Wisdom
There is nothing wrong with education but education without application is illusion.
If you are going to study, make sure the classroom adds value to your real-life experience, not distance you from it.
The problem is that our system rewards memorization, not innovation.
It produces employees, not entrepreneurs.
It teaches how to pass exams, not how to survive economic storms.
In Africa, many people pursue qualifications not because they want to grow but because they want to be introduced as “Mr. So-and-So, MBA.”
But what good is an MBA when your business is DOA Dead on Arrival?
The True MBA
When I look back at Simon’s story, I realize that the real MBA we need is different.
It should stand for:
- Mistakes
- Brokenness
- Application
That’s the education that produces true entrepreneurs.
Books can give you knowledge, but only experience can give you wisdom.
Classrooms can give you theories, but only the marketplace can teach you resilience.
Exams can give you grades, but only clients can give you bread.
Final Lesson
Education should empower you not enslave you.
It should teach you how to think, not what to think.
And it should make you more productive, not more proud.
If Simon had spent those two years reading business books, attending entrepreneur conferences, and mastering sales, his company would have tripled in size. Instead, he came back with a certificate and no staff to congratulate him.
So before you rush to enroll in another degree, ask yourself:
“Am I learning to apply or learning to impress?”
Because true success in Africa will never come from collecting certificates, but from collecting experiences, ideas, and results.
“The goal of education should not be to escape poverty it should be to understand it, solve it, and prevent it.”
From Miseducated Africa, by Jerry More Nyazungu
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