If someone had asked me before starting my MBA what I expected to learn, my answer would’ve probably been marketing frameworks, business strategy, consumer behaviour, or finance.
I wasn’t wrong.
But I also wasn’t expecting one of the biggest lessons to have nothing to do with a textbook.
It was learning how to be comfortable changing my mind.
One of the first things you notice in an MBA classroom is that there is rarely complete agreement. A case study is discussed, and suddenly the room is filled with different opinions. One person focuses on the numbers, another looks at the customer, someone else questions the execution, while another argues that the entire strategy is flawed.
Initially, I found that frustrating.
I wanted to know which answer was correct.
Over time, I realised that everyone was often working with the same information, they were simply looking at it through different lenses.
That shift completely changed the way I approached discussions.
Instead of preparing my point just to defend it, I started listening more carefully to understand why someone else saw the problem differently. Sometimes I still disagreed, but many times I walked out of class thinking, I hadn’t looked at it that way before.
I’ve started noticing the same thing outside the classroom as well.
A campaign that receives praise from one group might be criticised by another. A product launch that seems exciting to consumers may not make financial sense for the business. A strategy that works for one brand could fail completely for another.
Context changes everything.
That has probably been the most unexpected lesson for me. Business isn’t about memorising the “right” answer. It’s about asking the right questions, understanding the trade-offs, and recognising that different perspectives often reveal different opportunities.
I don’t think changing your mind means you were wrong.
Sometimes it simply means you’ve learned something new.
As I move further into this academic journey, I hope I continue carrying that mindset and not trying to win every discussion, but trying to leave each one with a better understanding than I had when I walked in.
Because in the end, education isn’t just about collecting knowledge.
It’s about being willing to rethink what you thought you already knew.