Based on reader feedback, I’ve update this. See the revised, better handouts here.
I gave a talk at Harvard Business School about ten myths we have in our culture about careers and success. By popular demand, I’ve posted a copy of the handout booklet here: Ten Cultural Lies of Careers and Success. It’s been annotated to include some of the detail. If there’s interest, I could turn the audio into a CD product. Would that be marketable/saleable?
7 responses so far ↓
1 vern // Apr 4, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Sounds like an interesting talk. CD’s are so ’90’s, though
I would think an MP3 and/or ebook would be marketable. Blog an excerpt or two for teasers.
2 admin // Apr 4, 2008 at 2:53 pm
I’ve wondered about this. I like giving people something physical that they can put on a shelf and be visually reminded of the product when they may need it. MP3s and eBooks seem less likely to generate word-of-mouth…?
3 mikerandrup // Apr 4, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Thanks for enabling the easier mode of feedback!
4 Jamie // Apr 4, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Really interesting presentation. Would you allow me to quote #6 on my blog? I’m a coach and this is one of most pervasive blocks to happiness I see. You’ve really laid it on the line here in a sight-inspiring way.
If I remember correctly, Po Bronson in his book What Should I do with My Life talked about how in his research he couldn’t find a single person that actually got to the dream at the end of the “I’ll do that after…” strategy.
I’m enjoying following you on Twitter too
5 Diana LeRoi-Schmit // Apr 7, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Thank you so much for sharing those! That is exactly the realization my husband and I have come to and have been working on changing our lives towards. Neither of us were ever really into the “big success” vision.
It always amazes me when we share this kind of perspective and information with friends/family and they seem completely perplexed.
Thanks again
6 Steve Mills // Apr 11, 2008 at 4:58 am
In a world where I meet more and more depressives, I think the list comes over as sheer depression: “Go kill yourself now for nothing you do will get you anywhere”.
I’m a positive person with a positive outlook and even I found it depressing. Frankly one can drive a bulldozer through some of what was said.
Take for example “We can control our lives” - it clearly says we can’t. Now can you control your car? Of course you can. But what if you wanted to fly? The car simply isn’t going to do that. Control doesn’t mean you can do anything that takes your fancy. It means at every road you’re presented with choices and you have control in that you can make the choice. Sure there is a lack of total control: you can only choose from the available choices, or you might be able to trigger some additional choices with sufficient imagination and lateral thinking and good friends, but it’s negative to say one has no control when clearly we do.
Some of the others are very shallow as they are presented. Take the bit about money doesn’t make people happy. Sure it doesn’t. However it does help remove many of the stresses and strains that deny happiness to people. It’s like Mazlow’s Hiearchy of Needs: if you’re starving and freezing to death then happiness is hard to find - you need food and heat and money will grant those. However once you have enough money to improve your environment and remove discomforts then more money won’t necessarily make you any happier.
I’m not dismissing the article, and I do agree that these things are things that people count on and yet they should not - there are more important things in life, but I do think each one should be put over with some positive slant on it.
Just as my response here reads negative when actually I liked the article, I could have written it in a very positive way but then you might gloss over it and miss the point
Kind Regards
Steve
7 Stever // Apr 11, 2008 at 9:06 am
Interesting take, Steve. We have opposite reactions. For me, it’s very liberating to stop thinking I have to pursue more intelligence, more control, etc. I can just relax and enjoy life.
This was a handout from a presentation, not an article in and of itself, so the framing and tone was provided live and is missing from this article.
The last thing I want to do is depress readers or make them think it’s hopeless. It’s very hopeful, just not by pursuing the paths in the list (in my humble opinion).
Do you disagree with the substance of the items or simply the negative framing of the presentation?
This presentation was given to a group of highly motivated students (Harvard MBAs), and some of the items were specifically chosen because I know that group is very prone to get into trouble with them. The items may not translate to the population at large.
The “We can control our lives” example … We can certainly control our actions, but I’ve found that every accomplishment I’ve had worth mentioning was either not my original goal, or was due to grabbing a fortunate coincidence that popped up nearby. None of my friends who had a life/career plan and stuck to it are particularly happy. Nor have I found anyone accomplished whose accomplishments were due to a plan, except perhaps in the smallest, shortest-term way. (e.g. a project plan)
How would you write that point in a more positive way?
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