How will you measure your life? by Clayton Christensen

Apr 28, 2019 books notes

The most important thing you’ll ever do is develop a purpose.

These are brief notes on the main takeaways I had from Clayton M. Christensen’s book “How will you measure your life?”

There are 3 main parts to developing a purpose

1. Likeness - knowing the person you want to become.
2. Commitment - being intensely committed to your likeness.
3. Metrics - finding the right metric to measure your progress towards becoming your likeness.

List your assumptions

Every plan has assumptions behind it. Make those assumptions explicit. Then rank-order your assumptions based on their:

• Importance - how important the assumption is to the success of your plan.
• Certainty - how certain you are that the assumption will hold.

The first ranked assumption is the most important and least certain. The last ranked assumption is the least important and most certain. Your plan hinges most on the highest ranked assumptions.

Theory of Capabilities

Capabilities are comprised of:

1. Resources - the tangible and intangible things you can access (what).
2. Processes - the transformation of resources into things of value (how).
3. Priorities - deciding which processes matter the most (why).

You can create new capabilities by figuring out what needs to change in your resources, processes, or priorities.

Role of money in your purpose

Money is a hygience factor, not a motivator. You need enough money to live a good life, but beyond that, more money doesn’t motivate people.

This is not meant to undermine the importance of money. It is to meant to make sure you identify true motivators while crafting your purpose.