MBAs need MFAs as much as MFAs need MBAs

Not only would it be great see more arts departments encouraging their students to walk over to the business and law schools, but it would be cool to see the business and law schools encourging their students to walk over to the arts departments. More and more business schools, ncluding Harvard and Stanford, are teaching courses on ethics that are rooted in the classics. So it is that artists--those who study and live higher aestehtics--have great potential for leadership.

"I am not a businessman—I am an artist." –Warren Buffett

Too often it seems modern academia tries to pigeon-hole people,thereby undermining the full range and potential of anyone with a dream that transcends the program. We're told that it's one kind of person who does science, another who does art, another who does law, and then another who does business. It's as if once you learn how to walk, you're never supposed to talk--you have to get someone from a different department. But in the real world, in order to lead and innovate, you have to both walk and talk--you've got to get your hands into everything. Is it law that makes the iPod successful? Is it art? Is it technology? Is it business? It are all of these things, and Steve Jobs' didn't first have to get degrees in art, technology, business, and law. But he did sit in on a Calligraphy class after he dropped out. In his own words at the Stanford commencement:

"Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space
between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating." (Jobs)

"None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later." (Jobs)

The arts--aesthetics--are of huge value to the business world--now more than ever.

Artistic entrepreneurs--those who see the value of keeping the higher ideals above the bottom line--will be a great assett to tomorrow's mutual funds and Hollywood studios alike. For long-term investors must always navigate by the higher ideals.

Here's Donald Trump on business & art:

"I view my business as an art, which it is. You should view your work that way too. . . Here's why. Artists are known for their
dedication, to their ideals, to their muse—whatever that might be—and for their perseverance in getting things just right. Those are admirable traits to possess. They will go to great lengths to achieve the desired result. Just recently a Beethoven manuscript was discovered in a library. He had made so many changes and scratches on it that he had punctured holes in the pages in some places. This work was done towards the end of his life, so he wasn't a novice at writing music at that point. That was just how he worked. Beethoven was a perfectionist, who wouldn't settle for less than his best. He didn't need to impress anyone except himself. That's a good way to be, whether you're a businessperson or a musician." –Real World Art: The Canvass that is Business, Donald J. Trump, Chairman, Trump University

Well it'll be fun to create programs where artists and entrepreneurs not only hang out, but where artists are entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurs are artists.

Art is a great unifier--it naturally transcends so many false boundaries. Arts curriculums are thus great vehicles for manifesting IE. When graduate students are given full opportunities to reach their potential, everyone wins.