Sunday, October 26, 2008
Dr. Mark Albion - More Than Money
"I arise in the morning torn between the desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day." - E.B. White
I am excited about the opportunity this Tuesday to go to see Mark Albion, founder of Net Impact, talk about making a life and not just a living. Part of coming back to business school for me is to find a career that is meaningful and I have been pretty disillusioned thus far. Out of the many company presentations I have attended so far, I have only found 1 or 2 that made me really excited about working. Anyway, I hope this seminar will give me some better insight and perspective.
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For years, Mark Albion ran at the head of the rat pack. Every step of the way, he built his career on a succession of triumphs. He earned three degrees at Harvard University: a bachelor's in economics, an MBA, and a PhD in business economics. In 1982, at the age of 31, he won an appointment at Harvard Business School, the West Point of capitalism, where he taught marketing. His success at Harvard attracted attention: He appeared several times on "Nightline" and was profiled on "60 Minutes" as part of a new breed of marketing wunderkind. He was called upon to help the best and the brightest: Blue-chip companies such as Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola flew him in for advice on how to fine-tune their brands. He had brilliant colleagues, unlimited resources, few bosses, a flexible work schedule, and personal wealth.
Oh, and one other thing: He was miserable.
Without realizing it, Albion -- a go-go guy with rapid-fire speech and the ability to function on four hours' sleep -- had allowed himself to get trapped in the rat race. He had always believed that he was on this planet not just to make a living but to find a way to enrich other people's lives. But in his quest to get ahead, he had left his core values behind. Albion was making a great living; he was failing to make a life.
If there is a promise at the heart of the new economy, it is this: We should all do work that matters. Today, we all put in too many hours, and accumulate too much stress, to work at something that isn't personally engaging and rewarding.
That said, far too many of us are willing to accept the notion that the new economy's promise simply doesn't apply to us. We still trudge off to work in the morning, tacitly accepting that we're stuck with whatever life deals us -- or, alternatively, that while our work may be unsatisfying, at least it provides the material definition of success. As a result, we feel that we're forced into making a fateful, either-or decision: Either make a living or make a life. Mark Albion has taken on an audacious challenge -- to replace the "either-or" with a "both-and." His mission is to demonstrate that you can make both a living and a life.
In 1988, Albion chucked the prepackaged definition of success that had buoyed him at Harvard. But what was he going to replace it with? He wasn't sure. But he knew one essential thing: He had to do work that mattered.
Albion never did find the right "job" -- but after much struggle, he invented one: He launched an electronic newsletter. He started a business. And he wrote a book, "Making a Life, Making a Living: Reclaiming Your Purpose and Passion in Business and in Life" ( to be published in mid-January by Warner Books ), which profiles 11 high achievers ( plus one dubious achiever, Fast Company founding editor Alan Webber ), who found their way into work that mattered to them.
Many of us built careers based on what we were good at, not what we loved -- not what made us feel ALIVE.
Source: Click here
"I arise in the morning torn between the desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day." - E.B. WhiteI am excited about the opportunity this Tuesday to go to see Mark Albion, founder of Net Impact, talk about making a life and not just a living. Part of coming back to business school for me is to find a career that is meaningful and I have been pretty disillusioned thus far. Out of the many company presentations I have attended so far, I have only found 1 or 2 that made me really excited about working. Anyway, I hope this seminar will give me some better insight and perspective.
---
For years, Mark Albion ran at the head of the rat pack. Every step of the way, he built his career on a succession of triumphs. He earned three degrees at Harvard University: a bachelor's in economics, an MBA, and a PhD in business economics. In 1982, at the age of 31, he won an appointment at Harvard Business School, the West Point of capitalism, where he taught marketing. His success at Harvard attracted attention: He appeared several times on "Nightline" and was profiled on "60 Minutes" as part of a new breed of marketing wunderkind. He was called upon to help the best and the brightest: Blue-chip companies such as Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola flew him in for advice on how to fine-tune their brands. He had brilliant colleagues, unlimited resources, few bosses, a flexible work schedule, and personal wealth.
Oh, and one other thing: He was miserable.
Without realizing it, Albion -- a go-go guy with rapid-fire speech and the ability to function on four hours' sleep -- had allowed himself to get trapped in the rat race. He had always believed that he was on this planet not just to make a living but to find a way to enrich other people's lives. But in his quest to get ahead, he had left his core values behind. Albion was making a great living; he was failing to make a life.
If there is a promise at the heart of the new economy, it is this: We should all do work that matters. Today, we all put in too many hours, and accumulate too much stress, to work at something that isn't personally engaging and rewarding.
That said, far too many of us are willing to accept the notion that the new economy's promise simply doesn't apply to us. We still trudge off to work in the morning, tacitly accepting that we're stuck with whatever life deals us -- or, alternatively, that while our work may be unsatisfying, at least it provides the material definition of success. As a result, we feel that we're forced into making a fateful, either-or decision: Either make a living or make a life. Mark Albion has taken on an audacious challenge -- to replace the "either-or" with a "both-and." His mission is to demonstrate that you can make both a living and a life.
In 1988, Albion chucked the prepackaged definition of success that had buoyed him at Harvard. But what was he going to replace it with? He wasn't sure. But he knew one essential thing: He had to do work that mattered.
Albion never did find the right "job" -- but after much struggle, he invented one: He launched an electronic newsletter. He started a business. And he wrote a book, "Making a Life, Making a Living: Reclaiming Your Purpose and Passion in Business and in Life" ( to be published in mid-January by Warner Books ), which profiles 11 high achievers ( plus one dubious achiever, Fast Company founding editor Alan Webber ), who found their way into work that mattered to them.
Many of us built careers based on what we were good at, not what we loved -- not what made us feel ALIVE.
Source: Click here
Labels: Books, Business School, Making a Life, Mark Albion, Net Impact
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