In this video, technology CEO and investor Kyle Murphy discusses the three goals of an entrepreneur in a new business.

People who have both freelanced and worked in an office environment usually have incredibly strong opinions on which experience is better. Office folk love the structure, regular paycheck and team environment. Freelancers love the freedom, flexibility and passion for their jobs.

But these aren’t the only things you can learn from each experience. Truth is, you can learn from both avenues and both can help shape your career for the future.

Two-and-a-half years ago, I quit my PR job in New York to strike out on my own. My blog had been doing better than expected, and the Facebook ads that landed me the job in the first place were bringing in some great freelance work.

So for two years I freelanced, slowly building up my client lists, getting more recommendations and figuring out how the hell to balance a real life with working for yourself.

And yet, today I work full-time for a digital marketing agency in Auckland. Seven months ago I would have told you I’d never work for The Man. I liked being my own boss and choosing my own clients and working from my footie PJs (note: I do not own footie PJs).

But let me tell you, the two years I worked for myself taught me more about work and careers and real world more than college ever did. And working at this incredible, small(ish) company has taught me more about collaboration and creativity and the power of marketing more than my puny freelance business ever could.

That’s why, if possible, you should try both these routes. Freelance while working full-time. Get an internship or consulting gig in an office while freelancing. Or do one and then the other. Here’s why:

Freelancing teaches you:

Multi-tasking. From writing your own invoices to figuring out how much you’re worth, and from selling yourself to actually doing the work, you will learn every aspect of running a business.

Hustling. No one is going to find clients for you. To survive, you’ll need to have the guts to go to networking events, cold call, ask for referrals and request recommendations; otherwise you’ll have no clients and no money. Being a freelancer makes you confident in selling your skills and asking for the things you want.

Trusting your gut. When starting out, most freelancers take whatever they can get. But the longer you work for yourself, the more you can be choosey about who you work for. That means you usually love your clients, projects and time you spend at the “office.” Eventually you learn to pinpoint when that email from a prospective client is subtly saying, “I’M GOING TO BE HUGELY DIFFICULT AND CONSUME ALL YOUR TIME.” And if you’ve been a good little freelancer you’ll know exactly when to avoid those guys.

Work when you’re productive. Not all of us are particularly functional at 8 a.m. and do epic work at midnight. “Real” jobs can pretty restricting unless your peak hours are actually 9 to 5. Being your own boss lets you quickly discover the times and places you are most productive, meaning more efficiency, self-awareness and subsequently more time off. Sort of.

Office jobs teach you:

Your idea is never the best idea. During the past few months at Young & Shand, I’ve never once seen one person’s idea come to fruition. Not because the people here aren’t brilliant. They are. It’s because we all meet and brainstorm an idea that ends up morphing into this epic, genius thing we’ll then work on together. Working as part of a strong team can mean all the things that make you awesome are suddenly heightened. Like being a vampire.

Wearing clothes is a good thing. Every freelance website on earth tells you to treat your home job like a real office. Wake up early, get dressed, work at a desk not near your living space. I did not heed this advice. I worked from bed, got up at 10 a.m., and blogged until 2 a.m. Yeah, I personally didn’t have the willpower to work from home. Having an office job keeps you social, sane and hygienic.

Most bosses are better than you. I was a horrible boss. I worked myself to the bone, couldn’t teach myself the ways of the world and had zero tolerance for mistakes. My current bosses are understanding, flexible and patient mentors. I really lucked out with them as I’ve had some pretty crappy bosses in the past, but I do think we’re harder on ourselves than anyone else. When you work for someone you usually grow more as a person and employee.

This isn’t an attempt to convince you one path is better than the other, it’s simply meant to help you think through the benefits and drawbacks of working for yourself vs. working for someone else (and get the gears turning in your head about whether you can do both at once).

What has your work experience – whether getting out there on your own or as part of a company – taught you?

Marian Schembari is a blogger, traveler and all-around social media thug. She’s based in Auckland, New Zealand, hails from Connecticut and blogs at marianlibrarian.com.

Jason Nazar, co-founder and CEO of Docstoc discusses common email blunders professionals should avoid. Learn how to keep your messages succinct, easily digestible and more likely to garner a response.

Click here for a full list of student-run organizations, and contact the clubs’ officers for more information. For details about MBA activities and networking opportunities, visit the Graziadio School’s event calendar.

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• May 18 – Pepperdine Hispanic Alumni Association Launch Event
• May 30 – The Commercialization of Space, presented by The Denver Business Series in partnership with the Colorado Waves
• May 31 - The Journey to the Middle Market featuring John Paglia
• June 5 – Professional Image in the Age of Social Media – Irvine
• June 5 - Professional Image in the Age of Social Media – West LA
• June 21 – 2012 Los Angeles Economic Forecast Conference

Pepperdine is a well-established university and one of top business schools in the nation, according to multiple polls. Recently, there has been a lot of discussion on both Yammer and Facebook and within the campuses about whether or not Pepperdine should offer online education as a way to further provide education to more students. Along with this proposal have come a lot of opinions as to whether or not adding such a program would increase or decrease the value of the Pepperdine brand.

Those who argue for the online program point to other universities who are offering online degrees, like the University of Indiana, whose online program is ranked among the top in the nation. They also point to MIT and Harvard, who will be rolling out free online course material to the general public this fall. However, the MIT/Harvard venture will not be providing those courses for credit, but to further the expansion of knowledge in a grand social experiment.

Those against online education point to how Pepperdine is already laid out across several campuses which could be portrayed as a University of Phoenix model already, and feel that an online program will devalue the quality of the Pepperdine brand.

Both of these arguments are valid, and the decision to pursue an online program to attract revenue, reach more students, and increase the alumni base of the university are all important decisions that need to be discussed and examined thoroughly and have input from all the stakeholders – faculty and staff, professors, current students, prospective students, alumni, and donors. Each of these stakeholders will bring a different viewpoint which must be weighed and thought out prior to a decision one way or another.

Personally, I believe that Pepperdine should put the online MBA idea on the backburner until the university can really distinguish itself as a beacon of influence. Currently, Pepperdine’s Fully Employed MBA program is ranked 43^rd by U.S. News & World Report, and to me, that’s not good enough.  I see an opportunity for Pepperdine to distinguish itself in an innovative way that should help build the brand value of the University to solidify its standing as an outstanding institution of higher learning, and it all revolves around the Graziadio School’s mission statement:

The mission of the George L. Graziadio School of Business and Management is to develop values-centered leaders and advance responsible business practice through education that is entrepreneurial in spirit, ethical in focus, and global in orientation. As a professional school growing out of the tradition of a Christian University, we seek to positively impact both society at large, and the organizations and communities in which our students and graduates are members. Therefore, we affirm a higher purpose for business practice than the exclusive pursuit of shareholder wealth. We believe that successful management seeks collective good along with individual profit and is anchored in core values such as integrity, stewardship, courage, and compassion.

I highlighted the areas which stand out to me as opportunities for the university to revolutionize the MBA, and I feel that Pepperdine’s Christian roots lend it credibility to be the leader in what I am about to propose. The term MBA – Master’s of Business Administration – focuses on the management part of business; the administration of the business to operate properly. This includes setting scheduling and creating budgets, financials, marketing etc – needed skills to be a successful business manager. But the University’s mission statement calls for values-centered leaders, not managers. I have written in the past about the difference between the two terms, and in my experience so far, I haven’t seen any part of the curriculum which focuses on building leaders.

Sure, the university has a Social, Ethical & Environmental Responsibility (SEER) certificate and promotes Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in its courses. To me, this falls short of creating leaders. Leading cannot be taught through coursework, but rather through hands-on experience in leading others. Much like riding a bicycle for the first time, one doesn’t find out how challenging being a leader is until they are thrust into wobbling along and trying not to crash. But unlike a bicycle, there are no “training wheels” for bright, young students to get a chance to lead when the stakes of crashing are lessened by a controlled environment.

Yes, Pepperdine has a leadership course here and there and offers an emphasis in leadership, and yes, HR handles many of the people-ey stuff in an organization, so why put everyone else through the same process?  Because it matters. And it’s a place where Pepperdine can separate from the pack and really live up to its mission statement:  We create business leaders. Breaking students out into groups for every class and having them conduct class projects and giving one student the chance to be “CEO” during the 670x simulation or Strategy doesn’t cut it. Many students, left to themselves, will never volunteer to lead a group, and thus they will never get the experience needed to be successful. Leading is uncomfortable; it involves confronting others and holding them accountable for their actions, whether those actions are good or bad. It involves understanding your own shortcomings, and taking criticisms from others to “see” how they perceive you, and how you can project the image needed to motivate your organization to follow your lead.

Breaking students out into groups for every class and having them conduct class projects and giving one student the chance to be “CEO” during the 670x simulation or Strategy doesn’t cut it. Many students, left to themselves, will never volunteer to lead a group, and thus they will never get the experience needed to be successful.

I am taking a strategy course right now with Dr. Biseda, who told us that during one of her consulting evolutions that interviews amongst the top leaders of the organization she was assisting led to one word appearing consistently throughout the organization: alignment. Everyone has to be on the same page in order for the company to function properly, and that they have to align with the leaders’ vision for the strategy to work. This requires people skills, this requires leadership to influence and motivate people to adapt and change to the new way of doing business. If those at the top aren’t holding a values-centered view of the business, there is no way the rest of the organization will.

I wrote before about the Marine Corps model of The Basic School, where all Marine officers are sent prior to ever leading troops in garrison or combat, where they spend six months learning from the leaders who came before them, and who are forced to lead their peers in a controlled environment, they are allowed to fail without repercussion, and they are immersed the challenges of leading people in the most hostile, austere, and challenging conditions known to mankind: warfare. No other service subjects their officers to such a course, and the ramifications of that difference are huge. I attended an army school with army officers immediately after leaving The Basic School and the difference in the level of confidence, and understanding of the role as a platoon commander between the Marine officers and the Army officers who had received only a two week indoctrination course was staggering.

Once a Marine officer reports to his unit, he or she is in command from Day 1, and shoulders full responsibility for the success or failure of his/her unit from Day 1. There are many within the confines of Pepperdine’s campuses who will find themselves in the same situation when they finish their MBA, so why do we not set them up for success as a leader in the same manner?  Imagine the impact of such an idea:  Pepperdine MBA’s are armed with both the book and administration knowledge of how to run a business as well as how to lead an organization from Day 1. I imagine that would increase the brand equity of the university quickly, and turn Pepperdine into a model for others to follow.

After all, isn’t that what leaders are for?