Each year, Clayton Christensen finishes his class at Harvard Business School by giving a lecture on the lessons he has learned during his life. In 2010, he was asked to give a summary of those lessons to the entire student body. Christensen’s lessons were soon being referred to in academic journals and news outlets around the world—and for good reason.
How Will Your Measure Your Life? is not your typical book about success. The authors deliberately shy away from providing answers and instead give guiding principles to help readers design their own solutions to various personal and professional challenges. After reading this book, I consciously set aside time each week to review decisions I have made and anticipate making. These times of quiet meditation help me determine how I want to measure my life – and how well I am doing in meeting that intimidating goal.
Christensen and his coauthors, James Allworth and Karen Dillon, explore the pathways and pitfalls of success with an impressive combination of academic soundness, vivid examples and a friendly narrative voice. The book is divided into three sections devoted to finding happiness in careers and relationships, and a surprisingly apropos section entitled, “Staying Out of Jail.”
I give How Will You Measure Your Life? a well-deserved 4.5 out of 5 stars. The book deserves a place in the cannon of success literature next to Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits. Seasoned veterans and new professionals alike will benefit from the thought-provoking principles and examples set forth by Christensen, Allworth, and Dillon.
The preceding text is taken verbatim from my brief review in the December 2012 edition of Utah Business.
