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08.10

By Terrance Malkinson

“How Will You Measure Your Life?” is the title of an article published in Harvard Business Review [88(7/8):46-51, July-August 2010].  The author, Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen, spoke to the HBS graduating class this spring to share his insights, strategies and guidelines on how to apply what they learned in business school to their personal lives.  The graduating students, themselves, requested that he address the topic because of the economic turmoil and uncertainty they will face in a world that is vastly different now than when they enrolled in business school two years ago. Professor Christensen’s guidelines include:

• create a strategy for your life; allocate your time, talents, and energy to shaping the strategy

• create a culture of self-esteem and confidence by doing things that are challenging

• hold on to your principles 100 percent of the time

• remember the importance of humility

• choose the right yardstick

Insets in the article provide HBS graduating students' perspectives on how the world has changed. Christiansen's article summarizes his address, and is a must-read for anyone seeking inspiration. 

There are many examples of individuals, some famous and others who toil in anonymity, who discovered a higher purpose to their lives and pursued the act of living with vigor.  Take, for example, Thomas Edison, the prolific inventor and the subject of Time Magazine’s 2010 history issue [see Other Bytes below]. Edison had very little formal education and endured a difficult, impoverished childhood, but he  discovered and nurtured his entrepreneurial talents which led to, among other things, the founding of 14 companies including General Electric. 

Lance Armstrong, a cancer survivor who won the Tour de France seven consecutive times, is the founder and chair of the Lance Armstrong Foundation (www.livestrong.org) for cancer research and support, which improves the lives of people affected by cancer. Even after repeatedly achieving the pinnacle of cycling success in Le Tour, he returned to this compete in this year’s Tour and finished a mere 39 minutes behind the winner Alberto Contador; ranking 23^rd out of a field of 170 finishers and 28 who did not finish.

The Marathon of Hope started by Terry Fox, who died from cancer at the age of 22 years and the subject of an earlier World Bytes column (May 2010), left a continuing legacy of raising hundreds of millions of dollars for cancer research (www.terryfox.org) and given many cancer patients reason for hope.

Professor Christensen is also a cancer survivor, and the experience gave him important insights into his life.  In his concluding paragraph (pg. 51) he states:

“Don’t worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people...Think about the metric by which your life will be judged, and make a resolution to live every day so that in the end, your life will be judged a success.”

How will you measure your life? What will your legacy be?

Other Bytes

Here are some of the things going on in and around the community:

• Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) was a prolific American inventor, scientist and businessman, developing many devices that changed the world, including the light bulb, phonograph and motion picture camera. He is credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory, which today is seen as setting the stage for modern technological think tanks. Thomas Edison is the subject of Time Magazine's 2010 history issue,  published 5 July 2010. [www.time.com].  Richard Stengel, managing editor of Time says of Edison in his introduction to “The Inventor”:
  
  “We chose Edison for this year’s history issue because we need his example now more than ever.  Though we live in a time of great innovation, the US is in danger of losing its pre-eminence in science and technology...we hope that Edison’s story might not only stimulate innovation but also inspire more young Americans to study science and engineering”
   

• In “Job-Hopping to the Top and Other Career Fallacies” [Harvard Business Review. 88(7/8):154-157. July-August 2010], Monika Hamori discusses her extensive eight-year research project examining how managers get ahead. Hamori cover four career advancement fallacies that emerged from her research. Fallacy #1 is that switching employers (job-hopping) does not necessarily offer a fast-track to the top.  The four fallacies are based on the experiences of real executives making real choices.  Hamori cautions that every career is unique and that you must look at each opportunity with a critical eye, and make the choice that fits best with the situation and your own ambitions.
   

• There are many opinions, both pro and con, on Facebook. In “Why We’ll Never Escape Facebook," James Cowan discusses how, in spite of important issues, use of the site continues to increase dramatically, and that we are only scratching the surface of the potential of this creation.  [Canadian Business, 83(10):28-32, 19 July 2010]. An inset provides information on Facebook’s competitors.
   

•  Joe Robinson, in his introduction to “E-Mail is Making You Stupid” [Entrepreneur. 38(3):61-63, March 2010], claims that the average desk worker loses 2.1 hours of productivity every day to technology interruptions and distractions.  He goes on to discuss how communication’s technology interruptions undermine workers' attention, increase stress and decrease job satisfaction and creativity, and then provides strategies for reducing these distractions.
   

• In “How to Start an Entrepreneurial Revolution” [Harvard Business Review. 88(6):40-50. June 2010], Daniel Isenberg discusses the positive effect that entrepreneurship has had on the country of Rwanda, catapulting it from 143^rd place on the “World Bank’s Ranking of Ease of Doing Business” to 67^th place. Isenberg offers nine best practices that governments should use to create an environment that sustains entrepreneurs.
   

• Bruce Schoenfeld's article in Entrepreneur Magazine provides profiles and rankings of the “Best Business Hotels in America” [38(5): 55-58, May 2010].  Topping the list is the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York followed by fourteen other best business hotels in America.  All of these hotels were judged to offer an exceptional experience for business travelers.
   

• In April 2010, the volcanic eruption in Iceland brought European and North Atlantic air traffic to a halt, resulting in a huge economic cost to airlines and stranding millions of passengers.  James Careless discusses four lessons that we learned from this event in: “The Volcanic Disruption: lessons learned from Eyjafjallajokull” [Wings,  51(30:34-37. May/June, 2010].

Terrance Malkinson is a communications specialist, business analyst and futurist. He is Vice-Chair of the IEEE-USA Communications Committee, an international correspondent for IEEE-USA Today's Engineer , editor-in-chief of IEEE-USA Today's Engineer Digest, associate editor for IEEE Canadian Review, and a member of the editorial advisory board of IEEE The Institute.  He was an elected Senator of the University of Calgary and an elected Governor of the IEEE Engineering Management Society as well as an elected Administrative Committee member of the IEEE Professional Communication Society. He has been the editor of several IEEE conference proceedings, and past editor of IEEE Engineering Management. He is the author of more than 400 publications, and is an accomplished triathlete. His career path includes being an accomplished technical supervisor and medical researcher at the University of Calgary a business proposal manager for the General Electric Company, an associate for Sears Canada Inc. and research administrator with the School of Health and Public Safety/Applied Research and Innovation Services at SAIT Polytechnic in Calgary Canada.

The author is grateful to the professional support of the Haskayne School of Business Library at the University of Calgary. He can be reached at todaysengineer@ieee.org.