How Will You Measure Your Life?
A Tribute to Clay Christensen
Keeping it short this week. I thought about writing about the Casper IPO but it would feel a bit like kicking a dead horse. At this point, I think we’re all over the storyline of overvalued startups going public at half their private valuation.
This week, I wanted to share an article that really made me take a step back and reflect on my purpose in life. It is by author and academic Clay Christensen. Clay Christensen was a Rhodes Scholar as well as a graduate and professor at Harvard Business School (HBS). He was widely known for his book The Innovators Dilemma and his coining of the term “Disruptive Innovation” before it was made cool by your local startup guru.
Mr. Christensen sadly passed away on January 20th. After his passing, Harvard Business Review re-published one of his most notable writings from 10 years earlier: “How Will You Measure Your Life?”.
Mr. Christensen studied with and taught many successful people over the course of his time at Harvard. Years later as he followed up with his former classmates and students, he found many of them to be sad and depressed. Their stories varied from filing divorces to estrangement from their children to serving jail sentences. You might have heard of one of them — Jeff Skilling of Enron fame was a classmate of Clay Christensen at Harvard.
How could that happen? How could the “best and brightest” end up in these less-than-ideal circumstances? They had gone to the best business school in the world, formed networks that many can only dream of, and many of them made millions. As Mr. Christensen reflected,
“They didn’t keep the purpose of their lives front and center as they decided how to spend their time, talents, and energy.”
Mr. Christensen reveals that, while these people spent countless hours pursuing success, achievement, and fleeting happiness, they failed to reflect on their “why” and their purpose.
The choice and successful pursuit of a profession are but one tool for achieving your purpose. But without a purpose, life can become hollow.
Mr. Christensen was a firm believer that life is not about the millions you made, the companies you will run, or building a global brand.
“Don’t worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people. This is my final recommendation: 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”
In a world of aspiring entrepreneurs, we need to remember that a purpose has to extend beyond making money or gaining notoriety. Our purpose has to connect to the people around us — making others and ourselves better people, partners, and founders.
If there is one thing that I can ask of you as readers of this blog, it is to share this post with a friend, co-worker, or family member. I hope this quick read will make you pause today and consider your purpose and your idea of success in this world.
Happy Learning.
-Sean
Update
In my first edition of this newsletter, I wrote about a newly-launched startup called Landing, which was founded by Shipt founder Bill Smith. My projection was that Landing’s Series A round would most likely be led Greycroft out of New York City.
Yesterday, it was announced they had closed their Series A of $30 million led by Greycroft. Pretty cool.