What is life? Finding the meaning of life using a business strategy

In this article we will tell you what to do if you do not feel satisfaction in life. Or if your dream does not allow you to make ends meet.

What is life? What is your plan for the next 5 years? And at 10? If you are like me, the answer will be something like this: "I have no idea." But such questions make you feel inferior. It is as if you are supposed to always know what to expect from the future.

In the wonderful book, “How to Measure Your Life?” ^★ Clayton Christensen writes that many of his students at Harvard Business School feel as if they should always have an answer to the question “What is life?”.

Since high school, they think that to succeedthey need to have a fundamental concept that accurately describes what they want to do in life. The basis of this belief is an entrenched thought: it is worth deviating from one’s own plan only if everything goes horribly.

Christensen draws attention to the irony associated with such ideas: these students do not understand that most enterprises, where everything is thought out to the smallest detail, do not even imagine what they will become.

As many as 93% of all companies discard their initial strategy because of its unprofitability.

Professor Amar Bheid in his “Start and Evolution of a New Business” ^★demonstrated that 93% of all enterprises that ultimately succeeded should have abandoned their original strategy, which turned out to be unprofitable. In other words, the success of the companies was not dictated by the correctness of their initial line of behavior, but by the availability of money after the failure, which allowed them to drastically change their field of activity and try a different approach.

Most firms have 2 forms of strategies: deliberate and spontaneous.

• The prepared one is inscribed in the business plan , in the PowerPoint presentation, in the list of goals. And it is her who has to be changed in 93% of cases.
• Spontaneous occurs in the process of movement. For example, when your little nephew ignores a gift ... but LOVES in shiny shiny brown paper. The study of heart medicine ... ends with the creation of Viagra. It includes what cannot be foreseen.

Your life is an eternal balance of thoughtfulness and unpredictability - plans and unexpected happy coincidences.

So, how do you know when to follow a chosen course, and when to change direction?

If a pre-prepared plan allows you to pay bills and satisfies you, stick to it. Pay less attention to chance and redouble your efforts as you move along the current path.

If you have found a path in your career that provides the conditions and incentives necessary for a normal life, then a well-thought-out approach justifies itself. Your tasks should be clear, and you should feel that their implementation is worth the effort. Instead of adapting to unexpected opportunities, you should focus your mind on finding the best ways to achieve your goals.

But what if you do not feel satisfaction? Or if your dream does not allow you to make ends meet and maintain your desired standard of living? What to do when you really don’t understand, “What is life?”

Christensen says that this is exactly the case of those 93% of companies. They had to experiment, looking for a new field of activity.

You need to constantly try something new to understand: perhaps a shiny wrapping paper is really better than a gift.

But if you have not reached the desired level in your chosen career , then, like companies looking for their way, you will have to move on to the spontaneous plan. In other words, when you find yourself in similar circumstances, experiment. Use the lessons learned from each attempt. And then quickly correct yourself. Keep this course until your strategy is successful.
But what you really should not do is sit in one place.

Meditation is what is rarely required. Attempts and experiments lead to real opportunities.

Very rarely, it makes sense to sit in an ivory tower and ponder the problem, expecting the answer to come up in the head itself. A strategy almost always appears as a result of a combination of thoughtful actions and unexpectedly turned up opportunities. It is important not to sit still, but to try something new until you understand where your talents, interests and priorities begin to justify themselves. The moment when you determine what really suits you, and will be the best for the transition from a spontaneous strategy to a well-thought out one.

PS We recommend another article on the topic - Achieve more by reducing the number of obligations .

Translation by Vyacheslav Davidenko, founder of MBA Consult