One of the theories that gives great insight on the first question—how to be sure we find happiness in our careers—is from Frederick Herzberg, who asserts that the powerful motivator in our lives isn’t money; it’s the opportunity to learn, grow in responsibilities, contribute to others, and be recognized for achievements. I tell the students about a vision of sorts I had while I was running the company I founded before becoming an academic. In my mind’s eye I saw one of my managers leave for work one morning with a relatively strong level of self-esteem. Then I pictured her driving home to her family 10 hours later, feeling unappreciated, frustrated, underutilized, and demeaned. I imagined how profoundly her lowered self-esteem affected the way she interacted with her children. The vision in my mind then fast-forwarded to another day, when she drove home with greater self-esteem—feeling that she had learned a lot, been recognized for achieving valuable things, and played a significant role in the success of some important initiatives. I then imagined how positively that affected her as a spouse and a parent. My conclusion: Management is the most noble of professions if it’s practiced well. No other occupation offers as many ways to help others learn and grow, take responsibility and be recognized for achievement, and contribute to the success of a team. More and more MBA students come to school thinking that a career in business means buying, selling, and investing in companies. That’s unfortunate. Doing deals doesn’t yield the deep rewards that come from building up people.
I want students to leave my classroom knowing that.
Create a Strategy for Your Life
A theory that is helpful in answering the second question—How can I ensure that my relationship with my family proves to be an enduring source of happiness?—concerns how strategy is defined and implemented. Its primary insight is that a company’s strategy is determined by the types of initiatives that management invests in. If a company’s resource allocation process is not managed masterfully, what emerges from it can be very different from what management intended. Because companies’ decision-making systems are designed to steer investments to initiatives that offer the most tangible and immediate returns, companies shortchange investments in initiatives that are crucial to their long-term strategies.
Over the years I’ve watched the fates of my HBS classmates from 1979 unfold; I’ve seen more and more of them come to reunions unhappy, divorced, and alienated from their children. I can guarantee you that not a single one of them graduated with the deliberate strategy of getting divorced and raising children who would become estranged from them. And yet a shocking number of them implemented that strategy. The reason? They didn’t keep the purpose of their lives front and center as they decided how to spend their time, talents, and energy.
It’s quite startling that a significant fraction of the 900 students that HBS draws each year from the world’s best have given little thought to the purpose of their lives. I tell the students that HBS might be one of their last chances to reflect deeply on that question. If they think that they’ll have more time and energy to reflect later, they’re nuts, because life only gets more demanding: You take on a mortgage; you’re working 70 hours a week; you have a spouse and children.
For me, having a clear purpose in my life has been essential. But it was something I had to think long and hard about before I understood it. When I was a Rhodes scholar, I was in a very demanding academic program, trying to cram an extra year’s worth of work into my time at Oxford. I decided to spend an hour every night reading, thinking, and praying about why God put me on this earth. That was a very challenging commitment to keep, because every hour I spent doing that, I wasn’t studying applied econometrics. I was conflicted about whether I could really afford to take that time away from my studies, but I stuck with it—and ultimately figured out the purpose of my life.
Had I instead spent that hour each day learning the latest techniques for mastering the problems of autocorrelation in regression analysis, I would have badly misspent my life. I apply the tools of econometrics a few times a year, but I apply my knowledge of the purpose of my life every day. It’s the single most useful thing I’ve ever learned. I promise my students that if they take the time to figure out their life purpose, they’ll look back on it as the most important thing they discovered at HBS. If they don’t figure it out, they will just sail off without a rudder and get buffeted in the very rough seas of life. Clarity about their purpose will trump knowledge of activity-based costing, balanced scorecards, core competence, disruptive innovation, the four Ps, and the five forces.
My purpose grew out of my religious faith, but faith isn’t the only thing that gives people direction. For example, one of my former students decided that his purpose was to bring honesty and economic prosperity to his country and to raise children who were as capably committed to this cause, and to each other, as he was. His purpose is focused on family and others—as mine is.
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via lifehacker.com
This is it! This is the dessert that caused a dirty word to slip from my lips. After a year or two on standby, this dessert finally had its turn. At first, my bar was quite architecturally sound . . .
Once I brought it to the grass, it achieved a bit of a slump.
I continued to photograph the thing even after I pierced it with my weirdo, three-pronged fork.
And then I proceeded to take a bite of soft, melty, sweet, lime, slush heaven. This really is the point where you want to eat this dessert, just as you think it’s too far gone.
These bars are ridiculous!
The lime semifreddo layer has sweetened condensed milk and a lot of fresh lime juice. Like most everything I make, I made these a little bit healthier by reducing the sugar in the watermelon sorbet by half. No one wanted them any sweeter. They were perfect. I also used half and half because I didn’t have cream. My heart is probably happier that way.
If you choose to use cream, you’ll be able to whip it like the recipe suggests. Then, your semifreddo layer will be twice as tall as mine! You win! *As a side note, I attempted to whip my half and half anyway. It sure didn’t achieve “stiff peaks,” but I was able to incorporate some air. *
Frozen Watermelon-Lime Bars
Inspired by Gourmet, but my version. If you follow my steps, you’ll save some calories and you won’t need an ice cream machine.
For Watermelon Sorbet:
- 1 (2 1/2-pounds) piece of watermelon, frozen
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 1 tablespoon vodka (Clam yourself, there’s 1/12 of a Tablespoon in each serving)
For Lime Semifreddo:
- 1 (14-ounce) can fat-free sweetened condensed milk
- 1 teaspoon grated lime zest
- 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
- 1/2 cup chilled half and half
Process
Prepare a 8 x 8 pan by lining it with plastic wrap.
Puree the frozen watermelon in a food processor. I let mine thaw for ten minutes first. Then, add the sugar, lime juice, and vodka and combine. Spread the mixture into the pan and smooth. Freeze while making the semifreddo.
Mix the sweetened condensed milk, lime zest, and lime juice in a bowl. Attempt to whip the half and half and then fold it into the milk mixture. Spread the semifreddo evenly over the sorbet and freeze for two hours.
Unmold, cut into 12 squares, and serve on chilled plates.
8 Comments
wow you are so young and talented…I think you’ll be the next female Jamie Oliver
Wow! That looks tasty!!!
Sami!
Who is the Teenage Gourmet?
I'm a 17-year-old girl from Kentucky who loves to experiment with food. This blog is all about new recipes and products. When I'm not in the kitchen, you'll probably catch me in the pool or doing homework. I'm a hard worker and I'm looking forward to my senior year of high school!
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- Frozen Watermelon-Lime Bars July 12, 2010
This is it! This is the dessert that caused a dirty word to slip from my lips. After a year or two on standby, this dessert finally had its turn. At first, my bar was quite architecturally sound . . . Once I brought it to the grass, it achieved a bit of a slump. [...]A Teenage Gourmet- A Whole Meal! July 11, 2010
Usually, I make a recipes, not a meals. It’s an inconvenient way to cook when someone asks you to make dinner. Sure, I’ll make some chicken curry, some flatbread, some mango smoothies. . . but all at once? Not likely. But, yesterday, I really need to cook. I needed to spend hours in the kitchen, [...]A Teenage Gourmet- Mint Ice Cream July 10, 2010
“Premium ice cream, all you need is some green food coloring. Slap a label on it and make a fortune!” – Brother Baskin Robbins has a special place in my heart. It’s the only place to buy ice cream in my town; they didn’t really give me a chance. When I was very little, 31 [...]A Teenage Gourmet- Vegas Vacation! July 9, 2010
My bro is one lucky kid! For his 21st birthday, he requested a family vacation to Vegas. Considering the fact that my parents can never get enough “chill time,” it wasn’t a hard sell. I was totally pumped to go along – fine dining, pools, shows? Yes please! All in all, it was a pretty [...]A Teenage Gourmet- Fudge Babies July 8, 2010
Before this recipe, I’d attempted homemade Lara Bars twice. Both previous attempts weren’t exactly failures (dates and nuts taste good no matter what), but they weren’t ideal. My food processor was covered in a sticky, date mess. The mixtures didn’t blend evenly. Even worse than the actual product, my machine took forever to clean. I’d [...]A Teenage Gourmet- All-American Pancakes July 7, 2010
Typically, I favor sweet breakfasts over savory ones. My day usually starts with something like yogurt, cereal, or oatmeal. Don’t misunderstand me though; there’s A LOT of variety. Muffins, breakfast breads, and smoothies make their appearance. When I have a little more time, I venture into the waffle and pancake territory. I lurve pancakes. They’re [...] […]A Teenage Gourmet- Avocado and Watercress Salad July 4, 2010
Remember that Ethiopian Injera Flatbread? It was pretty, but it tasted horrible. Well, this salad may be it’s exact opposite. The simple green salad above may look unassuming, but it really packs a punch According to Whole Foods, watercress scores a 1000 (a perfect score) on a nutritional index (link). That means what watercress has [...]A Teenage Gourmet- An Apology to My Blender July 3, 2010
As you may recall, my pre-1990 Hamilton Beach Blender was highly criticized a few weeks back. From my “Peach Chutney Salad Dressing” post, I quote, “My blender can’t handle much. If blenders all went to school together, mine would be the whiny kid that never did his work. My blender won’t crush ice . . [...]A Teenage Gourmet
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July 12, 2010 at 9:23 am