How Will You Measure Your Life?

Harvard professor and best-selling author (“The Innovators Dilemma,” “The Innovators Prescription,” “Disrupting Class,” and more), Clayton Christensen observed that many of his classmates, despite many accomplishments, were clearly unhappy with their lives. Divorce and the deterioration of many personal relationships were symptoms of something that had seriously gone awry with their lives. With this as a backdrop, Christensen began to challenge his graduating students with three simple questions to examine, measure, and improve their lives after Harvard: 1. How can I be sure that I will be successful and happy in my career? 2. How can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse, my children and my extended family and close friends become an enduring source of happiness? 3. How can I be sure that I live a life of integrity – and stay out of jail? (Enron’s Jeff Skilling was in Christensen’s class at Harvard.) “How Will You Measure Your Life?” emerged from this encounter with students. In it, Christensen asks the critical questions and provides a guide about how to think about life, one based on a deep understanding of human endeavor – what causes what to happen, and why. This he believes will help us with decisions we make every day in our lives – decisions that will help us avoid bad outcomes, unhappiness, and regret. Christensen uses business case studies throughout the book. He draws from these to provide a philosophy for life that offers real success. The starting point is a discussion of priorities - finding happiness in your career, finding happiness in your relationships and staying out of jail - so we can avoid the trap of giving-in to the inner voice that screams the loudest. Christensen’s wants to help you wake up every morning thinking how lucky you are to be doing what you’re doing. “How Will You Measure Your Life/” will help you build a strategy to do exactly that. On career happiness, Christensen warns that compromising on the wrong career path (for fame, money, power) is a cancer that will metastasize over time. What matters most is making sure our jobs are aligned with what really makes us happy. Motivation is much less about external prodding or incentives and much more about what’s inside of you and whether the work is challenging, provides for personal growth, responsibility, recognition, and sense that you are making a meaningful contribution. Money is not the root cause of unhappiness but becomes a problem when it supersedes everything else. (One friend of mine commented that when he left Wall Street as a well-known healthcare stock analyst to an executive role in a major healthcare firm that he was surprised to find that people really at this firm were not motivated by income but rather, were focused on reducing mortality and improving lives. The only thing he said that mattered on Wall Street was how much money you made!) “Before you take that job: • Carefully list the things that others are going to need to do or deliver in order for you to successfully achieve what you hope to do for yourself. • What assumptions have to prove true for you to be happy in the choice you are contemplating? • Are you basing your position on extrinsic or intrinsic motivators? • Why do you think this is going to be something you enjoy doing? • Think about the most important assumptions that have to prove true? How can you swiftly and inexpensively test if they are valid. What evidence do you have?” On personal relationships, Christensen notes from his observations and personal experience that the relationships you have with family and close friends are going to be the most important sources of happiness in your life. “You have to be careful. When it seems like everything at home is going well, you will be lulled into believing that you can put your investments in these relationships onto the back burner. That would be an enormous mistake. By the time serious problems arise in those relationships, it is often too late to repair them. The paradox is that the time when it is most important to invest in building strong families and close friendships is when it appears, at the surface, as if it is not necessary.” He warns that a common mistake made by both men and women is to believe we can invest in life sequentially. I have seen this many times…career is first, marriage is second, and children are relegated to third. The problem is made worse today with so many two income families. While each relationship needs to be routinely nourished and refreshed, we end up putting relationships on the back-burner because we are busy and preoccupied with less important things of life. We end up neglecting the people we care most about in the world. Without focus, we lose out on those rich and deep personal relationships that are the essence of life. To succeed with relationships, Christensen asks us to think about the job we were “hired” to do – as a spouse, as a parent, as a friend. “The path to happiness (in relationships) is about finding someone who you want to make happy, someone who’s happiness is worth devoting yourself to…I have observed that what cements that commitment is the extent to which I sacrifice myself to help her succeed and for her to be happy. Sacrifice deepens our commitment. It applies to all of our relationships.” Christensen notes that our role as parents is to prepare our children for the future. The tragedy of today’s culture is that we are outsourcing parenting to other relatives, nannies, schools, and extracurricular activities. We have lost sight of the importance of our time - the greatest gift we can give another person. Investing our time in another is a sign of respect and love. It provides a clear signal to others as to what is most important in your life. Creating a healthy family culture is hard work and requires an investment of self and time. Marriages are the merging of two cultures. Each family should choose a culture that’s right for them. This entails choosing activities to pursue, and outcomes to achieve. With time, family members will be on auto-pilot thinking “this is how we do it.” Culture development cannot be outsourced. It is doing things together – working in the yard, fixing the house, camping, homework, family sporting events, table games, cooking, etc. – to show our children how to love work, how to solve problems, how to prioritize and what really matters. Culture happens whether you want it to or not. The only question is how much you will influence it. On staying out of jail, Christensen warns against marginal thinking. It applies to choosing right and wrong. We are presented with moral challenges throughout life. When we think about doing something “just this one time” because the marginal cost appears to be negligible, we get suckered in. We don’t see where that path will ultimately take us nor do we appreciate the full cost of the choice. It could be one of many things – misrepresenting expenses or revenues, stuffing a distribution channel, insider trading, a small bribe to gain business, the use of drugs. The landscape is littered with people who never gave a thought to crossing the line “just this once,” thinking they would never get caught. Doing the right thing 100% of the time is easier than 98% of the time. If we break our own rules just once, we can justify the small choices again. Using marginal cost thinking to justify all the small decisions lead up to a big one. Then, the big one does not seem enormous anymore; it is just another incremental step. The only way to avoid the consequences of uncomfortable moral concessions in your life is to never start making them in the first place. When the first step down that path presents itself, turn around and walk the other way.” “The danger for high-achieving people is that they will unconsciously allocate the resources to activities that yield the most immediate, tangible accomplishments. They become accustomed to allocating fewer and fewer resources to the things they would say matter most. They are investing in lives of hallow unhappiness.” To avoid the pitfalls of creating hollow unhappiness, it is imperative that we define our purpose. The three parts of purpose are: establishing a direction (career, relationships, and staying out of jail) with milestones to mark our progress; making a deep, unwavering commitment to achieving the milestones; and using metrics to mark progress. The world will not deliver a cogent and rewarding purpose to you. What is the type of person you want to become? What is the purpose of your life? Is that important to you? Is it something you want to leave to chance? "How Will You Measure Your Life?"

Before, if were to look for a book about finding purpose, I might scan the religion, spirituality, or (egads) self-help shelves, or perhaps search for something in philosophy or psychology. Maybe if I was thinking really big picture and I didn't mind ending up feeling that the search was utterly futile, I would read popular physics or cosmology. But I would be least likely to seek out such a book from the business section. I would not think that theories on how businesses ought to run would have much to say to me about how I ought to run my life. But I would be wrong. Harvard Business School Professor Clayton M. Christensen's book, "How Will You Measure Your Life?" which he wrote with James Allworth and Karen Dillon, describes, in short chapters illustrated with work and home anecdotes, several tested and tried business theories. These theories are for the most part clearly presented, and their application to other aspects of life apropos; on first reading I less well understood the section on marginal thinking, but that was my sole stumbling moment. One might not think that the way upstart steel mini-mills ("disruptive attackers") so upended the business that most of the major steel mills went out of business--the topic of Christensen's earlier book, "The Innovator's Dilemma"--would have much applicability to everyday life. I think it takes someone like Christensen to carry that off: his life, it would appear, is very much organically interconnected. His faith, his family, his teaching, and his business analysis and theories are all integrated. Striving to live a purpose-driven life, Christensen naturally sees applications of his theories to the various dimensions of his life. Christensen illustrates, for instance, "The Greek Tragedy of Outsourcing" (see chapter seven). Analyzing where companies have gone wrong in outsourcing, Christensen posits that a company must first understand its capabilities, as defined by its resources (including, people, technology, cash and relationships), processes (how things are made, how the employees are compensated, market research), and priorities (how a company makes decisions). A company must never outsource its future capabilities, Christensen says. Take, for example, the case of Dell Computers: the once thriving company gradually outsourced its computer manufacturing and design--its processes--to Taiwan's Asus, until that company took what it learned from Dell and created a rival brand of computers. Christensen then applies this theory to parenting, suggesting that parents should not "outsource" their children's "processes" by "flooding their children with resources" (p. 133), i.e., filling their lives with busyness with which the parents are not directly involved, and in which the children are not given the opportunity to figure things out for themselves. Christensen and his associates designed the book so that the theories would logically connect. For instance, in chapter three, Christensen talks about the two types of strategies that businesses and individuals should develop: deliberate plans (what you plan to do) and emergent alternatives (possibilities that emerge over time and which may become deliberate). Then, in chapter four, Christensen discusses resources allocation, which funds the "deliberate and emergent initiatives." This linked-chain style organization is much more effective than "the string of pearls" approach of so many business and self-help books. Occasionally, though I found myself tripped up applying the business illustrations to the personal-life interpretations of the theory. In the example cited above of Dell's problems: are the parents Dell, or the children? In the section on marginal thinking, which tells the story of Blockbuster and Netflix, should I be wary of being Blockbuster, or try to be like Netflix? This is not the right way to approach this book: the business anecdotes are not illustrations for one's personal life, but rather, illustrations of the business theories that can be applied to one's personal life; in other words, it's the theory, not the business stories, that apply to the rest of life. Another way to look at it is that the business stories are like parables: short tales whose significance to one's life isn't always readily apparent. They're intended to make you think. At times I found the business aspects of the book just as compelling as the personal development side of it. I liked what Christensen had to say about a company's culture, for instance; he quotes Edgar Schein of MIT in defining it as "a way of working together toward common goals that have been followed so frequently and so successfully that people don't even think about trying to do things another way" (p. 160). I was edified, too, by Christensen's honoring of management as "among the most noble of professions if it's practiced well." He continues, "No other occupation offers more ways to help others learn and grow, take responsibility and be recognized for achievement, and contribute to the success of a team" (p. 198). What a super way to look at a management career, which so many, including managers, would look at as simply a way to get ahead. This is a highly useful and thought-provoking book. Only a couple of hundred pages in length, the book holds one's attention throughout. Christensen's faith plays a role in these pages, but it is not the subject of the book; still there may be some for whom that is unappealing. Personally, I found his willingness to put his faith out there refreshing. This would make a great gift for the person who is thoughtful about his or her life, and particularly for someone open to centering his or her life on what's essential and important. It's a book that I see coming back to in the years ahead. Still, I don't think I'll often head to the business section of the book store or Amazon for help on improving my life, unless, of course, I hear that Clay Christensen has a new book out.

It is prudent to pause every now and then and ask yourself important questions such as how should I measure the quality of my life? Is career success the indicator of life success and if so, how do I measure career success? Is it the asset base I have acquired, or the level in the organization to which I have risen, or the fulfilment my career provides? Is the measure a function of the quality of my family life or my reputation among my peers and community? Professor of management, Clayton Christensen first came to prominence with his 1997 book The Innovator’s Dilemma, a book that looks at how companies benefit from disruptive technologies. In 2010 he addressed Harvard Business School's graduating class on the question of how to measure one’s life and he offered a series of guidelines for finding meaning and happiness. The speech was later produced as a Harvard Business Review article and now expanded into a book. In the opening chapter of the book Christensen uses his former Harvard Business School classmate, Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling as an example. This uncommonly talented man’s career started well and ended destroying the wealth and careers of many with his conviction on multiple federal felony charges. Skilling clearly never intended this to be his career trajectory. Christensen cites a hardworking, decent neighbour whose family life ended in divorce and with children who rarely see him. The neighbour clearly never intended this to happen either. What makes people’s life plans go so spectacularly wrong? To deal with these lofty questions, Christensen applies theories of causation; if you do this then you get that, drawn from business case studies and some economic and financial theories. There are references to what we know of the fortunes of big brands including Dell, Netflix, Honda, IKEA, Motorolla among others. The justification for using business to learn life lessons lies in the rigour with which businesses are studied and Christensen’s belief that “the causal mechanism is the same, but how it manifests can be very different.” Citing Professor Amar Bhide’s conclusion that 93% of all companies that ultimately became successful had to abandon their original plan because it proved unviable. Most of those that failed, in contrast, spent all their money on the original plan. The theory of good money and bad money frames Bhide’s assertion. When the winning strategy is not clear in the early stages of a new business, good money from investors needs to be patient for growth but impatient for profit. This will force the entrepreneurs to find the right strategy fast and with little investment. Once a viable strategy has been found investors should become impatient for growth and patient for profit. Honda entered the American motorcycle market intent on competing with the large American bikes, but they were so cash strapped that they had to change course when this failed to take off immediately. They shifted focus to small engine bikes just to survive and this allowed them to later grow up the power bike ladder and take a significant share of the motorbike market. It is all too easy, Christensen to devolve to the bad money approach in our lives too. Keen to get ahead in our careers so we can provide for our families we start to think our jobs require our total investment of time and attention. We expect the people who are closest to us to accept that our schedules are simply too demanding to make much time for them. The same consequences that businesses face for failing to retain enough money to invest in the future, applies to our personal lives. Family and friends don’t intentionally desert us, but having been deprived of attention for so long, they just don’t feel close to us anymore. In similar vein Christensen shows similarities between marketing theory and enriching relationships. To ascertaining the customer’s real need for a product or service he asks, “What is the job that the product does that the customer needs done?” Charged with finding a way to grow milkshake sales for a client, he turned from the demographic analysis and the taste improvement route to asking, “What is the job of a milkshake in the morning in the life of a commuter?” The answer turns out to be to provide a long lasting treat to provide joy on a long commute. As such, milkshakes to this market need to be thick and the straws thin so that they can only be drunk slowly. What is the job your wife needs you for at the end of the day when the house is in a mess and the children have been her sole focus all day. Is it tidying up or adult conversation? Rather than telling the reader what to think, the style of so many self-help books, Christensen looks at how to think about the issues. He avoids offering the illusionary comfort of the “you can do it too!” exhortations, focusing rather on the reality that life, while rewarding, is hard. He leads the reader to an awareness of the care with which we need choose what we do to avoid unintended impact. The book is worth reading for the business insights alone. The approach to self-reflection is certainly novel even if there is little new in either the questions or answers. Readability Light +---- Serious Insights High --+-- Low Practical High +---- Low Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy

While locked down here in my bunker during this COVID-19 era, we’ve been talking about writing another book. No title yet, but here’s the big idea—“If I’d Only Read This Book EARLIER in My Career, I Could Have Avoided This BIG Leadership Mistake!” But should I write about my Top-10, Top-50, or Top-100 big leadership mistakes? (Yikes. I have an abundance of examples.) Much too late, I’ve often read a book that would have given me greater clarity—and sooner. Today’s book would certainly be on the list. Had I read this book in 2013, I would have given much better counsel to younger (and some older) leaders over the last eight years. I would have given less advice and simply said, “Just read this book!” LOL! On Jan. 15, 2013, a talented leader and lifelong learner/leader, Chasz, emailed me and urged me to read this book. GOOD NEWS. I immediately ordered the book back in 2013 (as Chasz instructed!). BAD NEWS. I set this gem aside and didn’t read it until this year during lockdown. Yikes. I wasted eight years! (Sorry, Chasz!) GOOD NEWS. I still have the two-page email from Chasz—and, yes, he was right. This “New York Times” bestseller is amazing. I can’t stop talking about it. And gratefully, Chasz’s 2013 email included his review! Note: On Jan. 24, 2020, an obituary in “The Wall Street Journal” reported that Clayton Christensen had died the day before. He had leukemia. They noted that Christensen was “a Harvard Business School professor and management guru…an authority on what he called disruptive technologies who became more widely known for offering his life as a case study.” So here’s a summary of “How Will You Measure Your Life?” (with notes from Chasz). In the book and in his MBA classes, Christensen asked three big questions: “How can I be sure that... 1) I will be successful and happy in my career? 2) My relationships with my spouse, my children, and my extended family and close friends becomes an enduring source of happiness? 3) I live a life of integrity—and stay out of jail?” On the last day of class each year, Prof. Christensen discussed these three questions with his Harvard Business School students. Word got around and he was then invited to give the talk to the entire study body at the 2010 graduation ceremonies. Next, Karen Dillon, then editor of “Harvard Business Review,” asked him to write the article, “How Will You Measure Your Life?” for HBR. The book was released in 2012 (and yes, I finally read it in 2020!). Chasz notes that when Christensen, also a HBS grad, attended his own class reunions—it concerned him that some classmates were experiencing personal and/or work traumas. Some stopped attending reunions out of embarrassment. I appreciate bullet point book reviews and Chasz didn’t disappoint in his 2013 email to me. He wrote: • We often find our life’s direction by following an “emergent” path. We make our plans and start out in what we believe is the way to go, but to be successful (like most businesses) we deviate from the plan to the opportunity. Christensen’s career aim was to be the editor of “The Wall Street Journal!” But he ended up as a prof at Harvard Business School. (And perhaps he had greater influence there. See two more books below.) • Integrity is holding the line on key commitments. Many people who cross the line naively think they will only cross it once, and will step over and come back “just this time.” But then having crossed that line (which was once a monumental decision), further line-crossing seems insignificant—and each subsequent “small” infraction eventually erodes a person’s integrity—compounding into major losses (family, career, etc.). • Read why Christensen says, “100 Percent of the Time Is Easier Than 98 Percent of the Time.” • Must-read: Christensen’s insights on why “outsourcing” may undermine your family’s values (and your organization’s values)—and why you must keep certain competencies in-house, even if difficult. • You must pursue your life purpose by determining what it is you are going to reflect in your character (whose image will be seen in you?), then commit to what it will take for this to happen, and create a means to track how you are doing in becoming more like your desired image. Chasz suggested that this would be a great CEO book study—especially for young leaders. Interestingly, Christensen himself didn’t sense that his last-day-of-class talks to MBA students were getting much traction—until he announced he had been diagnosed with the same cancer that had taken his father. Then students engaged—and this book is the result. Christensen quotes C.S. Lewis: “The safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” In addition to the powerful life lessons (poke-in-rib quotes on mistake-mistaking), every leader and manager will find delightful sidebars and rabbit trails on growing people and businesses in complex environments. Example: Noting “the problem with principal-agent, or incentives, theory…” (why some managers still think money motivates), Christensen discusses Frederick Herzberg’s work on the psychology of motivation—another topic I wish I had known about years ago. Read “One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?” in the January 2003 issue of “HBR.” (In the book, Christensen also gives a nice compliment to nonprofit managers.) Picture this on your business card! Clayton Christensen was twice “Ranked #1 in the Thinkers50,” the global ranking of business leaders. He was inducted into the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame in 2019. You’ll appreciate his wisdom throughout the book. He writes, “There are no quick fixes for the fundamental problems of life. But I can offer you tools that I’ll call theories in this book, which will help you make good choices, appropriate to the circumstances of your life.” Christensen writes that instead of telling Intel’s Andy Grove what to think during a consultation, “I taught him how to think. He then reached a bold decision about what to do, on his own.” The co-authors add richness to this remarkable book. In the Acknowledgments section (who reads that?) I got teary-eyed reading the warmth expressed between the three authors (pages 207-221). James Allworth writes to Christensen, “Short of my parents, you have done more to change the way I think about the world than anyone.” After meeting Christensen and learning about his three questions, co-author Karen Dillon recalls, “I stood in the parking lot of HBS a few hours later and knew I didn’t like my answers to those questions. Since then, I have changed almost everything about my life with the goal of refocusing around my family.” Trust us—you will not stop talking about this book and it will cost you! I just ordered another copy for a younger leader today.

This book, "How Will You Measure Your LIfe?" is written by an LDS man named Clayton Christensen. Here is my book review off Amazon: Christensen's thesis is this -- take examples of theories and principles from business, and describe them in the context of large corporations and managerial situations. Then, highlight how these theories and principles apply to individuals. The result is a book that is fascinating to people with an interest in business. But also relevent to their personal lives. The book is not about generating wealth -- it's about how to live a good life in ones family, career, and citizenship. I read this on Kindle, and I have highlighted many passages that moved or educated me. I have found that most books leave me with perhaps one or two permanent nuggets of information -- and this book brought me three or four. Here are some key concepts for me. First is Christensen's statement that mangement, if done well, is among the noblest of positions as it has such an impact on the overall happiness of so many people, who give managers such a large part of their day. This really inspired me. His description of deliberate and emergent strategy was new to me, in spite of years of teaching business. It solidified what age had convinced me was true all along -- that you start out with your best estimate of what a good strategy is, and then learn as you implement the strategy, making adjustments. He gives rules for when to use deliberate and emergent strategy and applies it to career development. Also significant was his statements about how to "stay out of jail". I was surprised he put that into his book given the well-educated audience he apparently targets with this book -- but then he described many high profile graduates of well-known universities who ended up in jail...I realized that no one is invulnerable and that repeated, escalating lapses in ethical judgment that can land anyone in jail -- based on Christensen's observations about graduates from his own university. Last of all, the name of the book -- How to Measure Your Life -- seemed like a misnomer for most of the book. I was constantly wondering why he chose this title as he never seemed to address it. But then, in the last chapter, he wrote the most moving description of his own personal mission statement, and how HE measures his life. It was like a reveal in a movie where you can't see the next plot development coming, and sit in suspense about how situations will be resolved. Then, in the last chapter, he ties it all together. It was like the ending to a well-crafted movie. In this way,he has a lot in common with Stephen Covey who was also a proponent of adapting the business mission statement concept to a person's life. Unlike Covey, Christensen shares his personal mission statement. You get a feel for the greatness of his character with some of the comments his collaborators on the book wrote about him as well. It brought some light tears to my eyes when I read it, particularly when he described a health challenge he faced (a significant, disabling one) and how his personal mission statement helped him through it. I recommend this book to anyone -- although I think people with a strong interest in business will find the book more engaging than people who aren't drawn into his business principles as an analogy for living one's life... I have two criticisms of the book. One, is his use of marginal costing principles to draw a parallel about "not giving into temptation once". I don't think he made the analogy's applicability to the personal point he was making, clear. Yet, for some reason, his advice, although disconnected from his example, made a powerful impression on me. This provided redemption for the mistake... Second was his criticism of technique-based learning. This form of learning occurs when you see something successful and try to emulate it by using the same techniques that led to the positive outcome. In contrast Christensen advocates a more academic approach to effectiveness, involving the application of theory. Although I agree that application of theory is a powerful way of having a meaningful impact on problems, it too has its pitfalls (picking the wrong theory for the situation, for example), the idea of taking what has worked in one situation and transposing it to a similar situation also has merits. My associates in various professional circles are realizing that technique based learning is often far less expensive than theory-based learning and can be just as effective. You have to conceive and test theory, where you can simply go straight to implementation with technique based learning. Nonetheless, I value this book and will be re-reading my highlights regularly. Great job Clayton -- I hope to meet you sometime!

I don't actually remember why I ordered this book, somehow it was in July and we are now in January of the next year and it just showed up from Amazon. I am not even sure what I think about the book, it certainly has nuggets, but is it life changing? Not sure. Not so much to me. Anyway, the first premise is that many of the people that are Harvard MBA graduates end up unhappy, they have multiple divorces, they break the law and go to jail etc. Of course others stay married and enjoy the breasts of the wife of their youth (Proverbs 5:19) and never take actions that risk jail ( we will get to marginal thinking shortly). The thesis of the book is that there is a theory ( though it seems more like theories) that should be considered and that good theory leads to good decisions. Let's look at some specifics. Section 1 is Finding Happiness in Your Career. The author makes the point that we compromise. True, though in my own case, I didn't even know what I wanted to do until I was forty something; I chose my major in college because my best friend seemed to be excited about a career as a cartographer ( something he is still doing today). I knew I needed to do something, so I did that. It was much later in my life that I found I was interested in computers, my first course was on an IBM 360 with punch cards. It was still later that my Sun 3 was hacked and I developed my focus in information security. As someone that has mentored about a hundred young men and taught far more students than Mr. Christensen, it is just not clear to me that you find your purpose in life early in life on a regular basis. The book makes the point that money isn't everything and I think we can all agree on that, though I have come to find money is something! Certainly how we spend our money speaks volumes about our purpose and priority, I certainly agree with the author on that. In what makes us tick, he references Herzberg. That social science research is in one of the courses I teach and I have spent years wrapping my brain around it. The short answer is you can love and hate your job at the same time. Chapter four stung a bit and that was good for me. I am not sure that I have invested in a life of "hollow unhappiness" ( page 73), but I have my share of mistakes and missteps. Gosh, I consulted with my wife, I made sure I was "thinking slow" (Daniel Kanneman), I prayed that God would open the doors or close the doors if I was not going in the right direction. On the main, I agree with, and have experienced some of the author's observations. As a Harvard MBA instructor and author, there are numerous business examples that possibly detract from the main message, Nucor steel mini-mills, Honda motorcycles, the Wal-Mart store location strategy, Disney's Paris location, IKEA, Blockbuster and Netflix and that is just scratching the surface. I found it hard to follow the business stories and then end up on the personal level, but intend to continue to ponder this. My favorite chapter was ten, titled Just This Once. It tells the Blockbuster/Netflix story as a foil to talk about margins and opportunity cost. This is also the chapter where the author talks about marginal thinking, which is similar to another book, the Seven Signs of Ethical Collapse (Jennings) that talks about how good in some areas atone for evil in others. He ends the chapter with a discussion of his own life and faith. I am a man of faith as well, but think I would have made a different decision, it is entirely possible that I am already marginalized. I plan to spend some time thinking about this. I truly relate to the author, on page 204 he describes himself as "a father, a husband, and executive, an entrepreneur, a citizen, and an academic", hey that's me too though I have also had to test my sense of purpose in this world as a son. After reading and upon reflection, I can't say the book really works. I will try to read it again, I am facing a fifteen hour flight, but after the first read I cannot say that I have learned how I will measure my life. That said, I am at a time of change in my life and that deserves some deep reflection and I did get some pointers on where to start.

Really the best book I have read by Christensen. Really smart guy has great insight you can learn a lot from him.

Having grown up in the Mormon church including serving as a Mormon missionary, it's very easy for me to spot Mormon beliefs even if they're not stated as such. I was only a short way into this book before I started thinking the author has to be Mormon. My suspicions were confirmed when I read that he and his daughter had both been missionaries and that he also taught at BYU. There's no doubt that he has some very practical advice. Putting your family ahead of your career, not making your life about the pursuit of money, living a life of morality and spirituality - these are all principles that will serve anyone well. And the examples he gave of different businesses succeeding or failing based on the decisions that they made, was very interesting. My only real complaint with the book is that he uses it to push the Mormon lifestyle without actually saying that's what he's doing. If he had just said at the outset "I'm a Mormon and what I'm telling you are fundamental principles of my religion", I wouldn't have a problem with it. Putting your family ahead of everything else, making your decisions from a spiritual center - these are fundamentals of the Mormon religion, and they're essentially what a large part of the book is about. However, the part of the book I had the biggest problem with was near the end when he talks about not compromising on your beliefs "not even one time". He gave the example of being on a sports team and refusing to play a game because it happened to be on a Sunday, and he did not believe in playing sports on Sunday. He Used this as an example of holding true to his beliefs. He easily dismisses the negative impact to the rest of his team and the awkward position he put his coach in. What he should have been saying to himself is "if I know I can't play any games on Sundays then why am I signing up for this team". This struck me particularly hard because growing up as a teenager in the Mormon church, I had many friends who wanted to play on sports teams and they always complained how coaches were reluctant to put Mormons on their teams because they refuse to play on Sunday. All they could see is that they were holding true to their beliefs, they were never able to understand it from the coach's point of view, and what a handicap they would be to the team. I do think the book has value and it's worth reading. Just keep in mind that the principles he espouses are coming more from his church than they are from him.

A very well assembled wholistic look at life (everything from career to family) building on business strategies that anyone can use. Learning the business strategies is interesting in itself, but the application to personal life was just what I was looking for as a young-ish professional. The best part was not being told what is important by the authors, but rather they provide tools and strategies for each individual to determine what is important to you and then how you can better achieve the results you want to see!

This book beautifully summarizes some of the most important theories from business school and applies them to your personal life. I found it worth my time as it compresses many decades of hard-earned knowledge into a short, easy-to-read book. The connections between the business and the personal world are very surprising. For example, who knew that raising kids and creating a company culture had so much in common? This book has earned its place on my top shelf of favorite books. It's right up there with the Trillion Dollar Coach and Factfulness. Highly recommended!

Livraison rapide et excellent livre

This is a wonderful book - an intelligent, thought provoking read which takes the key theories of Harvard Business School, reviews them through brief but illuminating business case studies, and then goes on to apply them to the lessons of life outside of work and business as well. A great little business book - it should be given that it is co authored by 3 people strongly connected with HBS - and a book which is guaranteed to make you think about how well you make the allocation of your resources - your skills, talents, money and time - align with what is truly important to you and the kind of person you would like to be though of as being. The authors make clear why so many people who are very successful in their careers have not always created the same success in their personal lives. It certainly made me think, and I hope will stay with me as I try to learn and to apply the lessons. This is not a sanctimonious or preachy book at all. It is smart, clear, practical and very readable with lots of valuable insights into life and business Highly recommended