Searching for Happiness

Getting an MBA in Life

 

Henry Thoreau said that the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. You can see in the eyes of the men and women that commute to work on a daily basis. They have been consumed by the work that that they do. Most are looking for a way out, or they wonder if there is something more to life.

 

The search that people conduct may appear to be somewhat aimless. They shift from new hobbies, sports, religions, partners in order to find what may be missing from their lives. This book does not profess to show you the secret meaning of life, but it will show you how to systematically find this out on your own.

 

 

Why a Business Model?

 

One might think that using a business model to one’s own life simply allows the problem to take control over a larger portion of your existence. But what if there were a way to try and apply what you have already learned to living a better life? Most people are involved in business in some fashion or another in order to earn income. Would applying those business skills somehow be of help to strategically lay out your own life to achieve your own personal vision and mission statement? Doing what you know and do best applies to most things. Certainly this would also apply to life, and using those honed business skills would make your life one of the top organizations for years to come.

 

A close analogy could be drawn between the normal corporation and the nature of men and women.  The essentially soulless corporation is dependent upon the values of those that run the organization in order to determine its own values.  Accordingly, one would think that the values of individuals have been aligned with the Corporation's direction.  Perhaps the true happiness of an individual may be somewhat analogous to the happiness of the organization.

 

The happiness of an individual can be divided into two main criteria.  The first criteria would be to find happiness in the satisfaction of the various desires that individuals have.  Therefore an individual could be happy either based on the satisfaction of these desires or the elimination of these desires.  However philosophical analysis would also indicate that happiness could be far more complicated.  The resolution of various desires would be more clearly defined as contentment.  Happiness of the individual would then be dependent upon the moral values of that individual and leading a highly moral life.  This may be a bit too simplistic since leading a highly moral life is insufficient.  Further analysis indicates that having good fortune is also relatively important.  Sickness and poverty are severe overlying factors that can prevent or mitigate against leading a moral life and true happiness.

 

The question then becomes what is the connection between how a corporation runs and how an individual can run their own life. Corporations have always used objectives such as profits, return on investment and dividends paid amongst other criteria.  Can this somehow predicate the happiness of the Corporation or do we have a similar kind of dichotomy between man and business? Does the satisfaction of these corporate criteria also refer only to contentment?  The satisfaction of these various corporate objectives does lead to the payment of dividends, wages and bonuses, which can lead to the contentment of individuals.  If indeed the Corporation's soul is made up of the individuals that run the organization, then we could have an argument that a similar dichotomy exists between contentment and true happiness within a corporation.  This would suggest that a corporation having the values of the individual would also seek to maximize its happiness by leading a highly moral life.

 

If a corporation could somehow be happy in the satisfaction of its mission and vision statement, then it stands to reason that a similar achievement of a personal mission and vision statement would lead to the happiness of an individual. However, there's a further question of whether or not happiness of the individual is somehow separate apart from the individuation or actualization of the individual.  It would seem that an individual would want to become fully actualized through the accumulation of skills and wisdom and perhaps wealth.  If ant individual wishes to become actualized through work, this is somehow consistent with leading a highly moral life.  One should be able to lead a highly moral life and still become actualized.  Actualization may have to do more with the contentment of the individual and the resolution of various desires of that particular individual

 

 

What Opportunity appears to lie for this approach?

 

There are numerous books on getting an MBA in various business areas already. There are also several books on developing a balance between work and life. However, there are no books that apply business skills to organize one’s own life. Developing a personal vision and mission statement are sometimes mentioned, but they are not mentioned in the way of an entire life strategic plan. A good life simply does not happen. You have to figure out what that means to yourself and how you are going to achieve it.

 

The primary market would be those deeply involved in business seeking additional self-help books. The title would be sufficient to bring to mind that those individuals should be giving further thought on organizing their own lives. In the traditional self-help section, there would be looking for a bit more of a systematic way to approach life. They may not have ever read a business book before, but if it were in the traditional self-help section for life skills, they would have a greater opportunity to learn about what a strategic plan was all about if the planning was about something that interested them.

 

A typical user would be the middle-aged business man and woman. Following the largest demographic hump, these people have been working in business all their lives and some have made tremendous sacrifices. They are now looking to work on their own lives now that they have succeeded in business. Some of them may have been great economic successes while they left the rest of their lives enter a form of emotional and physical bankruptcy.

 

The book would help those that have the greatest of skills but are still lost in trying to apply them to their own lives. These people may be inclined to read the occasional self-help book, but they may be lost in trying to determine what direction to go in. Having a book that aligns with their own personal interests and applies the relevant skills they already possess in order to maximize the returns to their own lives would be a logical extension.