Even Business Students are Disillusioned with Business

Yesterday I had a shaken-iced-passion-tea with Ryan, a recent graduate from the Sauder School of Business who loves Jesus and loves people. We talked about his views on business, which can be summarized by one word: disillusioned.

What frustrates Ryan about business is that the hard core business people seem fake, proud, cut-throat, slimy, manipulative, and shallow. Especially the successful ones. Their goal is money, not a passion. Their hidden selfish motives make it hard to have genuine relationships with them. Their business success defines who they are.

Ryan remembers his first year orientation at the business school, where he and hundreds of other freshmen were taught by senior year students to sing chants about how awesome business students are and how great money is. For the rest of his university days, Ryan stayed away from the hard-core business students because he didn't relate to them or want to be like them.

It's hard to blame Ryan for not wanting to be a successful business person. When I asked him if he's ever encountered any businesses or business people that have given him hope, he paused to think for a minute. He replied, "No, because whenever you hear about the good that is done by businesses, you know that it is done with selfish motives." There is nothing he's seen in business that inspires him. And that is a sad reality. Instead he wants to make his mark on the world by serving in an orphanage in China in the short-term and teaching high school in the long-term.

I know Ryan well, and he is a genuine, outgoing, talented young man with a great heart and boatloads of potential. Whatever he puts in mind to he will find success. He wants to change the world. But he doesn't think he can do that in the business world, even though he has a business degree. There is something wrong with this picture. Don't get me wrong, I'm very glad that he will be working in non-profit and education in the future. I'm just sad that there was nothing in the business world that inspired him, nothing that gave him hope or made him excited.

Many young people are not inspired by the shallow ambitions of making lots of money. There must be more to business than economist Milton Friedman's generally accepted definition that "the social responsibility of a business is to increase its profits." But what is it?

Is there anything about business that inspires you or gives you hope?