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This book, “How Will You Measure Your LIfe?” is written by an LDS man named Clayton Christensen. He is a university professor, former CEO of various companies, philospher. I think he might have been a professor at Harvard. Here is my book review off Amazon: Quote: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!
http://www.amazon.com/How-Will-Measure-Your-Life/dp/0062102419/ref=cm_rdp_product ” class=”bbcode_url”> http://www.amazon.com/How-Will-Measure-Your-Life/dp/0062102419/ref=cm_rdp_product Very good book. I like him a lot. It has made me think about what I want my life to be. I read it just before I dived into my faith crisis. I still lean on it a bit when trying to figure out what it is I want my life to be. Yes, it made me think as well, but I concluded I am still on the right track. There were two other things I liked about this particular book.
1. He approached your life’s success from a different angle from Stephen R. Covey, but reached similar conclusions about how to have a meaningful life. When two different approaches lead to the same conclusion, it bolsters confidence in the conclusion.
2. I liked how simple his mission statement was He measures his life by how many people he has helped. I thought it was also moving how he said that goal sustained him when he had a stroke and could not talk — a dire problem for a university professor who teaches face to face.
I’m glad someone else read it. It’s a way of getting a clean approach to life from someone LDS without having to go through all the doctrine….
Does the book talk a lot about goal setting and vision for life to set priorities? Does he encourage data gathering to measure success? What are some of his suggestions in the book? LookingHard wrote:Very good book. I like him a lot. It has made me think about what I want my life to be. I read it just before I dived into my faith crisis. I still lean on it a bit when trying to figure out what it is I want my life to be.
Any particular strategies he uses on figuring out life and what it should be? What worked for you?
I’m curious about the book. It sounds interesting but I’m a bit exhausted of books that over-simplify success.
I remember teaching a class about 10 years ago to members in my ward on doing member missionary work. It was based on Clayton Christensen’s Seven Lessons on Sharing the Gospel. It was a better approach than the more traditional ‘make a list of friends and pray about which one is ready’ approach to mission work. I saw that talk by Clayton Christensen. He was unconventional and did it with his daughter. They alternated the talk together, with her talking for a few paragraphs, then Clayton speaking, and then his daughter talking for a while, and back to Clayton again. His principles were much better than the traditional approach. One, I remember, is asking non-members to help you to do serve with your church. So, if you have to help that widow get her refrigerator moved out of her basement, ask a non-member neighbor — who then starts asking YOU questions. There were others that were equally as powerful. SD – Is his mission statement easy to paste in here? If you don’t feel comfortable doing that, no problem. Ann — took me a while to find it as it is on a Kindle…his mission statement is about what he wants to become, and how he will measure it. Quote:
A man who is dedicated to helping improve the lives of other people.A kind, honest, forgiving, and selfless husband, father, and friend.
A man who just doesn’t just believe in God, but who believes God
He says later in his book that he measures his life by the number of people he helped.
From:
Christensen, Clayton M.; Allworth, James; Dillon, Karen (2012-05-15). How Will You Measure Your Life? (p. 199). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
I personally don’t believe in sharing my mission statement broadly, as people then label you a hypocrite, or use it to get you to serve their own agendas. Further, my mission statement is a blend of things I am, know I will do, and things I am aspiring to — some of which are massive challenges for me. I don’t want people to see my staggering toward the end goal of my mission statement — that is for me alone. I have never shared mine with anyone in full, although I have shared pieces of it with others.
We have a family one that is shared broadly, however, as needed…
What do you think of Clayton’s mission statement?
How Will You Measure Your Life? One day at a time.
:wave:
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