Congrats, today you learned that most b school students aren't there to learn to start their own business - they're there to learn how to work IN a business.
They want that sweet, sweet corporate "security". A "good" job, a "good" salary, a pat on the head from parents & peers. Even plenty that say they want to start their own business - watch their actions come graduation.
Just like you wouldn't be surprised if a chemistry student wanted to work in a lab, or an architecture student wanted to work in a firm of architects. Sure, some will want to start their own lab or firm, but most won't.
Now, priorities are important, knowing when to pull back is important, but I want to present one alternative view point for your consideration - I'm not saying it's necessarily right for you right now. Right, enough caveating
You're - quite rightly - hating on "bare minimum" students who drag you down.
You're frustrated because your efforts to go above & beyond don't seem to be reaping you any rewards, not money or testimonials of course, but I'm guessing from your actual "clients" in this situation - your professors are probably not giving you extra credit or a higher grade, or even just verbally acknowledging "I see you there, doing better work than everyone, keep going."
Your response to this is:
BUT I'LL JUST FILL IN WHATEVER I'M ASKED TO DO
I get your frustration, but there's a danger of you doing precisely what you despise.
Consider - there's a more important audience than your college professors, or student peers, or anyone else at the b school - YOU.
You are witness to all your actions & this affects your self-esteem, your mindset, your self-belief. You are constantly reinforcing or altering your identity with everything that you do.
Don't do something you hate.
As @Lex DeVille put it in his phd thread:
Get used to being the best.
In fact, I just looked that bit up, & the whole quote deserves a repeat here I think.
Even if your professors don't notice or care, you'll notice, you'll care, & at some point someone else in the world will notice & care what you're doing, but this time they may be a client or an investor with a fat cheque, & they'll be watching you execute seemingly effortlessly, because by this time, your excellence will be a habit.
Believe me, I'm writing this post trying to reorient my own trajectory here as much as I'm trying to make the same suggestion to you.
Amen brother.
But the scary thing is sometimes group assigned DO simulate the workplace in the sense that you have to work with people you do not pick - if you're not freelance, or the boss.
You know what you have to do.
One final thing:
This reminds me of when I was doing some freelance work for a day at the headquarters of a huge multi-national company you would have heard of. The kind of place where you assume everyone has at least a "good" job & a "good" wage. It was a nice day so the canteen had decided to put on a barbecue outside - you just had to pay inside, get a little voucher, then you could hand it over to the barbecue team outside. They'd clearly printed a bunch of these simple vouchers to a standard page & chopped them up. No problem, it served a purpose. When I turned them over however, I noticed something - they'd stamped the back. I was immediately transported back to university where this is the kind of thing they'd do to stop cheap-a$$ student thinking they're funny & clever by photocopying the voucher to scam some free food. I felt so infantilised. Did they really have to do this? Here?! We're talking <$7. I was suddenly very aware of how much the giant office building felt like a campus, & how very, very glad I was that I'd moved on in life, & not just swapped one paternal institution for another.
@ZF Lee - how long to you have left till you graduate?
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