Tim Everson

Fast Company Article Summary

A Living or a Life?

By: Anne Field

I really enjoyed reading A Living or a Life. This article talked about a real life decision that must be made by people everyday, including myself. This decision is deciding on how much work is enough work but not too much. The focus of the article was on Mark Albion who was a professor in the Harvard Business School. Albion was a very successful educator spending many hours at work. He was well respected in the business community and spoke to many corporations and organizations. In time though, he found himself caught up in the rat race. He was making great money and didnt know if he really wanted to give it all up. Then he got what he called the call from hell. His mother wanted to talk with him about her recent diagnosis concerning cancer. This was the turning point in Albions life.

Many of us feel that there must be a decision made to either make a living or make a life. Albion set out to do both, make a living and have a life. The article described how he went through this change process. At first he found it difficult to make ends meet and ran into some failure, but by following his heart, he has created a work/life style that is rewarding.

I have been thinking about this subject for quite some time. With the completion of our Masters Degree in May, I feel that there will be certain doors of opportunity that may be opening for me. I am married, 35 years old, and have a young family of two. Jake is 2 years old and Ben is 8 months old. I keep thinking that if Im going to make a career move, I should be thinking about it now. Once my family gets older, the change will be harder to make. The past couple of years I have sort of become obsessed with trying to get ahead and make more money. Sometimes it seems that Im so busy with extra projects that Im working on that I dont have time to stop and breathe. I have kept telling myself that I have been so busy because of the Masters program. This is partially true, but the fact remains that I have started to spread myself too thin in some areas. I need to get things into better perspective. By recognizing the problem, I think that Im on the right track.

Since reading this article, I have gone to amazon.com and ordered Albions book, "Making a Life, Making a Living : Reclaiming Your Purpose and Passion in Business and in Life." I am looking forward to receiving the book so that I can start reading. I hope that I find the book as meaningful as I found this article.

-- Anonymous, January 18, 2000