New Delhi: Days after her exchange with Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath at Columbia Business School went viral, NYU Stern student Anaheez Patel addressed the moment in a LinkedIn post.
The duo had interacted during the India Business Conference held at Columbia on 4 April where Kamath was one of the speakers.
At the event, Patel referenced Kamath’s earlier remark questioning the value of MBAs. “A few months ago, you said if you are 25 and getting your MBA, you must be some kind of idiot,” she said, calling out the contradiction of such a view and being at a business school event. The exchange went viral across India on the relevance of formal education versus hands-on experience.
Kamath however responded to Patel’s question with candour.
“300 grand for your MBA course. So this room, if it has 500 people here, you have spent $90 million to be in this room. I hope knowing the rich kids of India of tomorrow has some value to me in the future. Hence, I’m here,” he said.
Now in her LinkedIn post, Patel has described the exchange as “72 hours of breaking the internet in India”, and wrote a long post that talked about her privilege, upbringing and ambitions. “We’ve normalised a kind of intellectual politeness where we sit around ideas we don’t agree with, simply because it’s easier. I’ve never found that particularly useful,” she wrote, adding that she believes in questioning ideas with logic and respect.
Patel shared her background, talking about how she was raised in a family where education was non-negotiable.
“But there was one thing that was never denied: Access to knowledge. Books were never questioned. Even family vacations had an element of learning and substance – many museums, dad took us into engine rooms on ships and more. VERY RICH, in that sense of the term,” she added.
But learning was not restricted to academics alone in the Patel household.
“Anyone who has known me growing up knows that academics were non-negotiable, alongside a fairly packed schedule of extracurriculars: debate, speech, drama, ballet, music, olympiad exams and more,” she wrote.
Patel also mentioned how her family supported their “domestic help” by funding her daughters’ education, with one going on to earn an MBA and achieve upward mobility. “When I speak about education, it’s not abstract. I’ve seen firsthand what it can do,” she explained in her post.
Also read: 5 explosive predictions that Elon Musk made on Nikhil Kamath’s podcast
Kamath’s comment
Kamath’s original comment about the usefulness of an MBA degree had come during a YouTube AMA session held to mark Zerodha’s 15th anniversary, where he appeared alongside his brother Nithin and other senior members of the company.
While discussing the changing landscape of education and entrepreneurship, Kamath said his podcast “WTF” was meant to encourage more people to think beyond traditional academic paths.
“In my opinion, colleges are dead. If you are 25 and going to an MBA college today, you must be some kind of an idiot. If you ask me,” said Kamath. “Five years from now, this trend will be exaggerated. A lot more people will not be opting for entrepreneurship, but they’ll have to choose it as there would be fewer jobs in traditional sectors,” he added.
Content creator
Prior to her MBA at NYU Stern, Patel worked as an MBA Consultant at Conde Nast and Ferragamo, Senior manager in Business Development at C&C Talent and Assistant Marketing Manager at Vogue India & Condé Nast Traveller India. She also has a certificate in nutrition science and is a fitness content creator.
On her Instagram, Patel documents her journey of studying at NYU, and also debunks fitness myths.
“On the topic of candour and ‘guts’, if you know me personally or follow me on Instagram, this probably didn’t come as a surprise. I have a spine, and I believe in using it,” she wrote.
Her post ended with directing the readers to her Instagram account, where she posts about “fitness, nutrition, fashion, culture”.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)