success that lasts laura nash & howard stevenson harvard business review february, 2004

Success that Lasts

Laura Nash & Howard Stevenson

Harvard Business Review

February, 2004

What is Success?

• Conventionally Success is Achievement at Work as measured by earning and accumulating money and the associated lifestyle and status.

• Of course, there’s more to it than that …

… but what?

Slides and lecture draw upon Success That Lasts, Laura Nash & Howard Stevenson, Harvard Business Review, Feb. 2004

Dimensions of Success

• Happiness (!)

• Achievement

• Significance

• Legacy

• Domains for Success– Self, Family, Work, Community


What does “Happiness”

have to do with “Success”?

• Why are you taking this course?– To fulfill a BBA degree requirement

• Why do you want to earn a BBA degree?– So I can get a good job

• Why do you want to get a good job?– Because … X … Why do you want “X”?– Because … Y … Why do you want “Y”?– etc.

The “Infinite Why” exercise

This slide and section of the lecture draw upon Happier, Tal Ben-Shahar, McGraw Hill, 2007

Why do you want to be Happy?

• “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”

– Artistotle, as quoted in Happier,

Tal Ben-Shahar, McGraw Hill, 2007 (page 31)

• “… the great end of all human industry is the attainment of happiness. …”

– David Hume, as quoted in Happier,

Tal Ben-Shahar, McGraw Hill, 2007 (page 32)


What does “Happiness”have to do with “Success”?

• Happiness is success – the ultimate success

• Happiness fosters other types of success• “Numerous studies show that happy individuals are

successful across multiple life domains including marriage, friendship, income, work performance and health”

– Research on well-being, Lyubomirski, King, Diener, quoted in Happier, Tal Ben-Shahar, McGraw Hill, 2007 (page 32)


What is Happiness?

• Feelings of pleasure, contentment about your life– More than just the absence of unhappiness– Need not be conditional on Achievement

• “…the overall experience of pleasure and meaning.” – Happier, Tal Ben-Shahar, McGraw Hill, 2007 (page 33)


Happiness independentof Achievement

“I am happiest when I am running on the open road with no noise and it is just me and my thoughts on the road ahead. I ran a 10 kilometre run and half of it was on a beach. This made me truly happy, seeing the beauty of nature around me as I ran with the sun on my face. To me this is a success.”

Excerpt from a Personal Profile assignment, used with permission a student who chose to remain anonymous

“…happiness … is playing a drum set … not a sense of achievement, but rather pure happiness through individual escapism. Playing the drums, which I primarily do alone, allows me the positive release of aggression as well as catalyst for rhythmic creation, both of which are entirely pleasurable. The lack of further instrumentation, rudimentary click of the metronome or the eyes and ears of an audience when playing the drums offers me a blank canvas to create.”


“My idea of success in happiness within myself is simply dancing. When I am dancing with my friends I am truly happy because we are all able to let loose and express the music and our pleasure through our movements. We have no desire to think critically about our dance moves, or other people’s dance moves, we just move with our hearts. We move to the rhythm together and as individuals. We feed off of each other’s positive emotions and good vibes. These moments are where I create some of the strongest bonds with my friends. …”


“Happiness to me is the simple joy of walking to a dimly lit hockey rink at night with some of my closest friends… the sound of laces tightening and skate blades scraping against the ice… the sight of breath hanging in the air and the feeling of making a perfect shot takes me back to a time when things were simpler. I could spend every night out there on the rink. The mix of serenity and nostalgia are unlike anything a man could describe. That truly (to me) is the definition of happiness.”


Achievement

• Accomplishment of goals– This dimension receives disproportionate

attention, especially early in life / career.– Success of this type is a moving target


Penrose “Impossible Staircase”Lionel Penrose, Roger Penrose, 1959

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_stairs#mediaviewer/


Significance

• The sense that you’ve had a positive impact on people you care about


“Something significant that I did for my community was when last year my girlfriend and I volunteered at her grandma’s retirement home to help cook and serve thanksgiving lunch. Even though I was not personally connected to any of the residents, the feeling of helping them was rewarding unlike anything I had ever felt. I truly believe to this day that it was more satisfying for me to help them than it was for them to be helped by me.”


Legacy

• Having a positive impact beyond your direct involvement– This isn’t only for late in life


Legacy at a young age

• “When I was in high school, I was elected to the student council. While on the council, I began something called a ‘mitten tree’ where students could donate gently used winter wear by placing them on the tree, which we then delivered to families in need. I started it and was very happy to hear that to this day my high school continues that tradition … ”


Balance is Essential

• No amount of abundance in one dimension of success can compensate for lack of success on other dimensions.

• “Unless you hit on all four categories with regularity, any one win will fail to satisfy.”

– Success that Lasts


Harvard Business Review, February, 2004–


Achieving Balance

• A particular activity can satisfy multiple dimensions of success, although not likely all at the same time or in the same proportion

• Balance is more likely to come from juxtaposition of various activities


“Just Enough” Success

• “… success has to rest of a paradigm of limitation in any one activity for the sake of the whole. …” in other words … “on the reasoned pursuit of just enough.”

• “… real satisfaction [is] achieved through the deliberate imposition of limits.”



Harvard Business Review, February, 2004


Balance trumpsNumber, Magnitude

• [Success is] “ … not the amount of activity or number of rewards in any one category, but the securing of a proportionate mix of all four.”

• “… examples of what counted as ‘real’ success included accomplishments of wildly varying magnitude.”





Renewal is Essential

• “Unless you hit on all four categories with regularity, any one win will fail to satisfy.”

• “Could you ever fully abandon one of the categories and still feel that you were a success?”





Expectations of Success

• “Matching your expectations [of an activity] to the right category [of success] is a critical skill for achieving sustainable success.”




• How an activity is “framed” may have a lot to do with how “successful” it is


Just Enough Success

• “enough: occurring in sufficient quantity or quality to satisfy demands or needs.”

• “… the antidote to society’s addiction to the infinite ‘more.’”





Success that Lasts


Harvard Business Review

February, 2004

success that lasts laura nash & howard stevenson harvard business review february, 2004

Documents

ultimate success happiness

tal benshahar

mcgraw hill

anonymous slide

success self

pure happiness

attainment of happiness

sense of achievement