Book Byte #98 "How Will You Measure Your Life?" by Clayton Christensen

A Book on Family, Work and Life

📣 Curious Quotes from the Author

“It's easier to hold your principles 100 percent of the time than it is to hold them 98 percent of the time.”

“The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. —Steve Jobs”

“In your life, there are going to be constant demands for your time and attention. How are you going to decide which of those demands gets resources? The trap many people fall into is to allocate their time to whoever screams loudest, and their talent to whatever offers them the fastest reward. That’s a dangerous way to build a strategy.”

“Intimate, loving, and enduring relationships with our family and close friends will be among the sources of the deepest joy in our lives.”

“You can talk all you want about having a clear purpose and strategy for your life, but ultimately this means nothing if you are not investing the resources you have in a way that is consistent with your strategy. In the end, a strategy is nothing but good intentions unless it's effectively implemented.”

“If you defer investing your time and energy until you see that you need to, chances are it will already be too late.”

“I had thought the destination was what was important, but it turned out it was the journey.”

“I used to think that if you cared for other people, you need to study sociology or something like it. But….I [have] concluded, if you want to help other people, be a manager. If done well, management is among the most noble of professions. You are in a position where you have eight or ten hours every day from every person who works for you. You have the opportunity to frame each person’s work so that, at the end of every day, your employees will go home feeling like Diana felt on her good day: living a life filled with motivators.”

“In order to really find happiness, you need to continue looking for opportunities that you believe are meaningful, in which you will be able to learn new things, to succeed, and be given more and more responsibility to shoulder.”

“Because if the decisions you make about where you invest your blood, sweat, and tears are not consistent with the person you aspire to be, you’ll never become that person.”

“The only metrics that will truly matter to my life are the individuals whom I have been able to help, one by one, to become better people.”

“Resources are what he uses to do it, processes are how he does it, and priorities are why he does it.”

“Indeed, while experiences and information can be good teachers, there are many times in life where we simply cannot afford to learn on the job. You don’t want to have to go through multiple marriages to learn how to be a good spouse. Or wait until your last child has grown to master parenthood. This is why theory can be so valuable: it can explain”

“In fact, how you allocate your own resources can make your life turn out to be exactly as you hope or very different from what you intend.”

“The hot water that softens a carrot will harden an egg.”

“In our lives and in our careers, whether we are aware of it or not, we are constantly navigating a path by deciding between our deliberate strategies and the unanticipated alternatives that emerge.”

“Culture is 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. If a culture has formed, people will autonomously do what they need to do to be successful.”

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do.”

“Successful companies don’t succeed because they have the right strategy at the beginning; but rather, because they have money left over after the original strategy fails so that they can pivot and try another approach. Most of those that fail, in contrast, spend all their money on their original strategy—which is usually wrong.

📚 Cognition of the Book’s Big Idea:

The most successful professionals invest their resources not only in their careers but also in their families and lifestyles. We can attain the work/life balance that we seek by taking responsibility for the tasks that require our attention outside of the office, such as parenting our children, supporting a spouse, or conducting our own lives with integrity. Only then can we find true contentment.

Do not be hesitant to allow your children to solve difficulties for themselves!

When you give your children what they want, you are most likely acting in their best interests. The truth is that they need to be pushed, whether by learning a musical instrument, trying out a new sport, or improving social skills. This will provide kids with difficulties to solve while also teaching them values and engaging them in activities.

🛠️Fixing the Tech Industry

Resources = What they use to do it
Processes = How they do it
Priorities = Why they do it

This Formula is pretty powerful. If anything is ever asked of us, ask yourself first why you're doing it, is it a priority? Sometimes that decision is made for you and sometimes you need to make it for yourself.

The other 2 factors of the equation are actually not as important. As long as our priorities are straight, the How and the what doesn’t really matter, just go with how you were taught or what feels best. It’s more important to get to work than over plan.

🤝Collaborate with others with this Social Media Prompt:

How will you measure your life? In Good Relationships? In Monetary Value? In Mental progress or achievement?

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