How will you measure your life?

The Harvard Business Review’s 10 Must Reads

As a way to trick myself into writing more in 2023, I’ve revisited an original idea I had a year ago to read every essay in the Harvard Business Review 10 Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books) and reflect on each essay in a blog post for further discussion on LinkedIn. The inspiration for the idea was to give me an opportunity to explore different business topics and gain insight while reflecting on my career path to date. One of my favorite activities in the MBA curriculum was discussing case studies in a group setting. I remember reading about some real catastrophes and arrogantly thinking, “How can somebody be so stupid?” At that time, I had zero management responsibilities and and even less experience. I had the luxury of looking at the issue from the outside. I was never in the “shit” so to speak, so I was so naive to think I would never make that bad of a mistake, because these mistakes were reserved for dumb people. As we all know, hindsight is 20/20. Since my days of incubating in an MBA program are over, I’ve been humbled on more than a few occasions for making some pretty bad decisions. In the heat of the moment, wrong decisions were made worse by each subsequent decision made after the original wrong decision was made. I knew it was the wrong decision from the get-go, but I refused to let myself admit I made the wrong decision. Fortunately, my wrong decisions did not sink a company or resulted in anyone losing their jobs, but my ego suffered the worst of it and I have matured considerably as a result. I don’t hope for the best anymore. I strive to manage my situation before the situation manages me.

As you can see, I digress. The HBR’s 10 Must Reads collection that I am reading is a neatly packaged box set that consists the following six subjects:

1. The Essentials

2. Managing Yourself

3. Managing People

4. Leadership

5. Strategy

6. Change Management

Over the course of the year, I hope to report back on each and every one of these must reads. I thought it would be fitting to tackle Managing Myself first before moving onto the 10 must reads on Managing People. Socrates stressed the importance of Managing Yourself with his “Know Thyself” credo. After moving on from Managing People, I’ll crisscross between the final three subjects of Leadership, Strategy, and Change Management. Let’s dive right into the subject matter with the first must read of the series asking us to consider how will we measure our lives.

How Will You Measure Your Life?

Every year we fall victim to the “New Year, New Me” cliche which segues nicely into the first essay of the Managing Yourself series titled, How Will You Measure Your Life? This must read was written by Clayton M. Christensen. Sadly, he has passed on since writing this for the Harvard Business Review, but his beliefs, ideas in action, and key concepts are memorialized on his personal website. In the article I read, he outlines the following three questions for consideration:

1. How can I be sure I can be happy in my career?

   Happiness was not ever discussed in the MBA program and even less in the office. I think many of us believe happiness is a can that can be kicked down the road for retirement when we all amassed our fortunes in business. We did focus on business ethics through the lens of Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative. Basically, Kant says to treat each and every person as an ends and not as a resource at your disposal and your action should be undertaken in the assumption that the same law applies to everyone. In this case, happiness is a product of treating people with respect.

   In order to be happy in Christensen’s view, you must subscribe to Frederick Herzberg’s idea that the biggest motivator in life is not money; it’s the opportunity to learn, grow in responsibilities, contribute to others, and be recognized for achievements. After all the consulting engagements I’ve endured, I totally subscribe to this idea because I’ve been burnt pretty bad by staying on engagements for much longer than I should’ve because of the money. The most money I have ever made in a single year (salary + bonus) was earned in the most toxic work environment I have ever experienced. I took a significant decrease in salary for my current position where I am engaged, respected, and happy. Christensen makes one final point that resonates the most with me. His point is “management is the most noblist of the professions if it is practiced well.”

2. How can I be sure my relationship with my spouse and my family become an enduring source of happiness?

   To tackle the second question, you have to identify your purpose and keep it in front of you at all times. Christensen talks about seeing a lot of his classmates from Harvard divorced and estranged from their children. I don’t think anyone goes to Harvard with the notion that they’re going to be divorced and failures as parents, but how often do we all actually reflect on what our purpose is? Our time on this earth is finite and our options are pretty much infinite at this point. We now even have the benefit of Artificial Intelligence to do some of the heavy lifting. No matter what, there are still only 24 hours in a day and eight of those hours should optimally be used for sleep. Of the remaining 16 or so hours, why is it so difficult to dedicate just one hour each day to reading or any other pursuit of happiness?

   Christensen goes on to talk about the meaning of culture and its importance in charting a course and introduces us to the Tools of Cooperation as well as the Power Tools (coercion, threats, punishment, and so on) needed to ensure everyone follows the course forward. Eventually, there comes a point where these power tools no longer work. During the toxic work environment described in the previous section, I was hit with every blunt force power tool imaginable. It worked in the beginning, but eventually these tools don’t work anymore. Once you know you’re taking on more water than you’re trading, you just say, Fuck It! and Deep 6 yourself. He uses an example of his own children. Once children become teenagers, the power tools described above are also not effective on them as well. If you want your kids to have high self-esteem and the confidence to solve problems, you’re going to have to design them into your family’s culture from the beginning.

   There’s another point worth mentioning. Most of our lives go sideways once we allocate fewer and fewer resources to the things that matter most to us. Taking the time to build a culture that promotes allocating resources to ensure continued propagation of happiness is time well spent. Not pursuing my original idea to write about each of these HBR Must Reads last year has set me back. It’s not as if I reallocated that time to learning to play the guitar, another foreign language or volunteered anywhere. In short, i didn’t create more happiness. Hopefully, all these zigs and zigs lead to building and solidifying a purpose driven life.

3. How can I be sure I’ll stay out of jail?

   I thought Christensen was saying this in a tongue in cheek fashion until he mentioned being a classmate of Jeff Schilling from Enron who is sitting in the hoosegow. He discusses something that we’ve all done in our lives. It’s the “just once” excuse we rationalize to do something we know we shouldn’t be doing. It suckers you in and you have no idea what path this is going to take you down. Everyone’s life is one big set of extenuating circumstances if you choose to view it that way. It’s way easier to hold on to 100% of your principles all the time than just 98% of your principles. You have to define for yourself and draw the line.

Final Thoughts

The essay was not revolutionary. However, it was a very good read and allowed me to think about the importance of humility in the workplace. Throughout life I have been taught by people smarter than me. I worked as a janitor (the custodial arts on a resume) during undergrad studies at the University of Minnesota. My supervisor Glenn was a retired truck driver that needed something to keep him busy during the day. I was more fascinated by Glenn than many of my college professors. The guy was an avid reader and was very well spoken and provided some pretty good insights on life. As a long haul trucker, reading books kept him out of bars and trouble. A few years after working with Glenn, the movie Good Will Hunting won the academy award. To clarify, Glenn wasn’t a genius like Matt Damon’s character. The only similarities is that they were both janitors. I don’t want to give anyone the idea that I was hanging out with a genius. Glenn could barely balance his checkbook and he was always losing at poker night with his buddies. Glenn said some wild stuff and used colorful language all the time, but he was a good man. Prior to reading this essay, I haven’t thought about Glenn for over a quarter century. Why did I think about him now? I remember running into Glenn at a Minnesota Twins game at the Metrodome in Minneapolis by accident. He was there with his wife, daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren. He was happy and happy to see me. I was so surprised to know he talked about me to his wife as the Greek kid from Milwaukee. I felt like I knew her as well from Glenn. Even though Glenn and I spent a few hours a day together for a short period of time, it reminded me of the power of having a humble eagerness to learn something from everyone. I think I’ll measure my life with the same yardstick I use to measure Glenn’s life. Think about all the students that worked with him and all the lives he touched as a retired truck driver working as a custodian to make a few extra bucks and get out of the house for a few hours a day at an institution associated with books and learning.