The $50K restaurant manager has more real business skills than most MBAs.
And honestly, itโs usually not even close.
Hereโs why.
People Management
Leading 20โ40 people.
Different ages. Different problems.
Friday night rush.
Two no-shows.
No excuses.
Crisis Handling
POS crashes.
Walk-in dies.
Angry guest.
Health inspector walks in.
At the same time.
You fix it. Or the business bleeds.
Real-Time Decision Making
No meetings.
No slides.
No โcircle back.โ
Hundreds of decisions per shift.
Seconds to decide.
Real consequences.
Financial Discipline
Running food, labor, and overhead on 3โ10% margins.
Miss it, and youโre done.
Most MBAs have never felt that pressure.
Customer Psychology
Turning rage into loyalty.
No script.
No case study.
Just instinct and experience.
The MBA gets theory and a diploma.
The restaurant manager gets scars and results.
One is educated.
The other is battle-tested.
Stop undervaluing restaurant managers.
They already earned an MBA.
The classroom just smelled like a kitchen.
#business #entrepreneurship #realworldskills
