One of the major changes post-crisis has been in evaluating the life and career options. HBS Professor Clay Christensen (Author of Innovator's Dilemma and Seeing What's Next) was asked to address this question to the class of 2010. Instead of providing for straight answers, he asked the class to find cogent answers to three questions - 1) How can I be sure that I will be happy in my career? 2) How can I be sure that I will find the enduring source of happiness in relationship with my family? 3) How can I be sure to stay out of jail (i.e. lead a life of integrity).
He does offer his answers and methods that he applied to find these answers. For the first question the author allocated one hour every day from his extremely busy schedule (while studying) to think about the purpose of his life. For the second, he kept reminding himself of taking decisions for the long term i.e. investing time in building relationship. For the third question, he has very accurately summed up in one sentence - it is easier to hold to your principles 100% of the time than to hold 98% of the time. One last advice he offers is to choose the right yardstick to measure the success in life. He measures his by the number of people he has positively impacted.
