MGMT 3000’s Professor Lyons: ‘Don’t be so concerned about being perfect at everything’

Everyone has been there before – drop/add week snuck up on you and you’re left scrambling for classes. Star ratings flicker across the computer screen, while the brain pensively weighs the future agony between a two or three star professor.

Sometimes these professor rating sites leave us unsure of the true nature of our potential teachers. So I grabbed my camera and met up with MGMT 3000’s Charles Lyons.

The Tab UGA asked him about everything from his hotness rating on Rate My Professor to what he would bring on a desert island.

How would you describe MGMT 3000?

A student’s introduction to the alpha activity of business: strategy formulation.

How does a student ace your class?

It’s a structured class, so students have to get into the system of how it works. The kids who like the class and who do well follow along with my train of thought and my view of business strategy.

By virtue of the class size, it’s a one-way conversation. But if a student can still get in the conversation with me and see how I’m thinking and see what I think is important, then that’s where the lectures can add value to the other materials. Essentially, it comes down to picking up the tune of the class.

What is one book you’d recommend reading before taking your class?

I have two, sort of. The first is Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers. I wish I’d heard of the 10,000-hour principle when I was younger.

The second is Steve Jobs’ Stanford University commencement address in 2005, which isn’t a book, obviously. Although Jobs probably wasn’t a great role model for interpersonal relationships, the three stories he tells in his address, and the conclusions he draws from them, are pretty powerful and have always resonated with me.

On a scale from one to five, how many stars do you think you have on Rate My Professor?

From two years ago, I know it was pretty low. I’ve brought it up a little bit by not making my classes so hard. I’m going to guess somewhere between a 3.5 and a 4.0.

Are you also aware you have a hotness pepper listed with your rating?

You’re kidding…seriously? That’s just some frat dude who’s messing with me.

If you weren’t teaching, what would you be doing?

What I’d really like to be doing is playing as a full-time musician. I’d be a rock star. I play guitar and I like to sing. I’m not sure that everyone else likes that I sing, but I like to sing. What I’d really be doing is what I still do some of now, which is practicing Business Law.

What’s your go-to bar in Athens?

Blue Sky.

The Charles Lyons major motion picture biopic has been announced for 2017. What’s it called, who directs it and who plays you in the lead role?

“The Sociable Loner,” Rob Reiner and Nicolas Cage.

What is your spirit animal?

German Shepherd.

If you are stranded on a desert island and can only bring two items and one companion, who and what do you take?

I’d bring my guitar, my iPod and if I had to choose between my wife and daughter, I’d have to say my wife because she tends to look after me, whereas I’d definitely be taking care of my daughter.

If you could reverse one law that impacts U.S. corporations, what would it be and why?

Our corporate tax structure and how it tends to create incentives for American companies to relocate to other countries. I’m not necessarily arguing that corporations should pay fewer taxes in the abstract, but this comparative advantage or disadvantage that we have from the tax code seems to be problematic.

What will UGA’s football record look like during Kirby Smart’s first season?

I’m predicting the Dawgs will be the SEC East Champs with only one loss.

What is your advice for incoming freshman and graduating seniors?

Don’t be so concerned about having to be perfect at everything. It turns out you don’t have to make it through life undefeated and without ever getting your uniform dirty.

There’s a line in a song by Noel Gallagher called “AKA…What a Life!” that goes, “I’m going to take that tiger outside for a ride.” Knowing what I know now, if I were doing it over again, that’d be my mantra.