Como Mediras tu Vida?

A recent Instagram meme, created by Liz and Mollie, got us thinking about values. You’ve probably seen it, but if you haven’t – take a look at the below: 

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The Pandemic has brought a different frame of mind and a switch-up in what we hold dear. Our True North Star at Barrio News is to bring quality news in a concise and clever way through disruptive innovation. In thinking through this, we listened and read to everything that Clayton Christensen had to say. 

Who is this Señor? We wouldn’t be true to ourselves if we weren’t dropping some Silicon Valley Ted Talk Knowledge to drive our point home. (Check-Out: The 8 Min mark that summarizes his point – It’s truly a mic drop moment to us.)

Clayton Christensen: A guru of of Disruptive Innovation 

Clayton recently passed away. He was a well-known business consultant and academic who created the “Theory of Disruptive Innovation” in 1997. His theory contributed to the birth of Netflix, Google, and Amazon. He is credited with the most influential business idea of the early 21st century. Although he is not Latino, we have a lot in common with him as he shares our values of understanding what’s important in life – Family and Community. 

Background: Clayton came up with a very simple question in a short paper, in which he asked, “How will you measure your life?”. This paper was revolutionary in that it’s highly cited by both business and academics – something that doesn’t have very often.

This paper came from his observations in the world of Harvard. Clay graduated from Harvard MBA. In a class reunion, he realized all his classmates were “work” successful but were morally challenged. Some old classmates had done time in the poke (jail), had children that didn’t like them along with multiple divorces under their belts. 

He wondered how this happened. People who were so successful in business but were challenged as human beings. The most notable individual in his graduating class was Jeffrey Skilling, the CEO of Enron. (Note: remember this name!)

Side Note: Clayton views life the same as Frederick Herzberg, an American Psychologists, who stated that “The effective motivator isn’t money; it’s the opportunity to learn, grow in responsibilities, contribute to others, and be recognized for achievements.” In short, doing deals or business doesn’t yield the deep rewards that come from building up people. 

Back to Our Point – In his short paper, Clayton asks three simple questions:

1. Can I be sure that I’ll be happy in my Career?
2. How can I be sure that my relationship with my spouse or wife can become an enduring source of happiness?
3. Can I be sure to stay out of Jail?

We know what you’re thinking…….Me Gusta pero me Asusta! We feel ya…we felt overwhelmed the first time we saw this. 

You may be asking “How do I even start to answer those questions?” or “Why are those questions so simple yet so hard” or “Why does my brain hurt?” and….that’s why we’re here. Take our hand, we got you. 

Here are 6 ways to view life that can help YOU find answers to the questions above. 

Create a Strategy for your Life:

Clayton believes it’s crucial to have a clear purpose in life is essential but something that takes a lot of work to understand. The choice and successful journey is just one tool for achieving your purpose but without purpose, life can become hollow. 

Allocate Your Resources:

You and only you decide how you allocate your time, energy, and talent which is what shapes your life’s strategy. The choice of time allocation can make your life turn out to be different from what you intended. Sometimes that can be good as opportunities that you didn’t plan for come up. However, if you miss investing your resources, the outcome will be bad. 

If you look at life through this one perspective you will notice a very important thing that sticks out: people allocating fewer and fewer resources to the thing they say mattered the most. 

Create a Culture:

If you want employees or kids to have strong self-esteem and confidence, it is something that you will need to nurture. It won’t magically appear. You have to design them into your family or team’s culture – It’s important to remember that people build self-esteem by doing things that are hard and learning what works. 

Avoid the Marginal Cost Mistake:

You have to define for yourself, what you stand for and draw the line in a safe place. If you give in “Just this once”, based on marginal cost analysis, you’ll regret where you’ll end up. It’s easier to hold to your principles 100% of the time than it is to hold to 98% of the time. 

Remember the Importance of Humility:

Individuals that have a high level of self-esteem – know who they are and felt good about who they are. It is easy to look down on others when you get a taste of success but a truly confident individual is defined as humble through the esteem with which they regard others. Good behavior flows naturally from that kind of humility. 

Choose the Right Yardstick:

Success in material things is not something that makes you a better human. Don’t worry about the level of individual greatness, worry about the individuals you have helped become better people. 

Hope this short piece was helpful, If you’d like to read more items like this tell us about it here or in the comments section.

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