“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
When we came to Harvard Business School we had to squash our lives onto a one-page resume. I hated it – I had to leave off all the weird things about my life that I actually thought were the most interesting. I may have worked as an English boarding house matron and cleaned houses in exchange for board in Brooklyn, but somehow those experiences didn't qualify for the resume. The resulting document was flat and boring.
So I plan to keep my life filled with juicy variety. Sure, that may mean moving along the path to career "success" a little less rapidly than my colleagues, but those side diversions are challenging and invigorating. In the next 10 years I want to spend time working in a developing country, I want to cycle across Canada, and I want to play dress-ups with my kids and take them dancing in the street. I sometimes feel worried because I have less of a vision of how my "formal" career will progress, but I know that happiness comes when you work towards something you believe to be meaningful and important. I care deeply about economic development, building communities and educating others, and somehow I will weave these different threads into my life. Just don't forget those juicy side diversions on the way.
So I plan to keep my life filled with juicy variety. Sure, that may mean moving along the path to career "success" a little less rapidly than my colleagues, but those side diversions are challenging and invigorating. In the next 10 years I want to spend time working in a developing country, I want to cycle across Canada, and I want to play dress-ups with my kids and take them dancing in the street. I sometimes feel worried because I have less of a vision of how my "formal" career will progress, but I know that happiness comes when you work towards something you believe to be meaningful and important. I care deeply about economic development, building communities and educating others, and somehow I will weave these different threads into my life. Just don't forget those juicy side diversions on the way.
— Jean Hayden