Week 11 Post

*Note: Due to personal reasons I was not able to attend class on 3/16. Therefore, in this assignment I was not able to relate the topics to class discussion. However, I made an attempt based on class notes I received from my peers.
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The first reading in which I will discuss is a chapter from Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In this chapter Stephen Covey outlines (through his many years of research) the difference and pros and cons of character ethics and personality ethics. For Covey, both of these categories of ethics are really secondary for the sake of his discussion, and he emphasizes what he calls “the power of a paradigm”. Although I found Covey’s example of the several pictures of a woman (of varying degrees of age) somewhat confusing and unrelated, his subsequent discussion of the importance of paradigms and paradigms shift was rather intriguing. According to Covey, a paradigm represents the internalization of correct principles upon which enduring happiness and success are based. While this definition may be somewhat confusing, Covey hashes out his argument quite well, and really makes a case as to the importance of paradigms in our own lives. For me, the best way to understand paradigms is in terms of a “map” of one’s life –they are the source of our combined attitudes and behaviors that direct where one is going in any aspect (or all aspects) of life. Covey then moves on to explain what he calls the “paradigm shift”, and in order for this to happen we must be fully aware of the extent to which we have been influenced by our own life experiences. Thus, the more we can take responsibility for [those paradigms], examine them and understand them, the more successful we can be.

A second aspect of the Covey reading in which I would like to elaborate on has to do with the idea of perception. According to Covey, we see the world not as it is, but as we as humans are, or, as we are “conditioned” to see it. Covey talks a great deal about conditioning and how many aspects of how we perceive things are very much influenced by our innate nature to be conditioned. One quote in which I found to be greatly noteworthy was, “Where we stand depends on where we sit”. This quote really resonated with me and caused me to think about my life and how I perceive the world around me. Basically, and I agree with Covey, as clearheaded people (which most Vanderbilt students certainly are) we all see things differently, and what we think, say, and write in some way or another describe ourselves, our perceptions, and our own paradigms. This is particularly important when we collaborate with others because as clearly or objectively as we may think we see or understand things, we must realize that others can and (and do often) see those very same things differently. Furthermore, if we come to better understand how others perceive things (i.e. others’ own personal paradigms) we can then more effectively communicate and synergize with them –be it personally, academically, or professionally.

The next reading I wish to discuss comes from Peter Drucker’s The Essential Drucker –the chapter titled “The Second Half of Your Life”. In this reader Drucker discusses what to do with the second half of one’s life –life after the age in which most knowledge workers reach the peak of their business career. According to Drucker, there are three possible paths or directions that a professional may take during the “second half” of their life. These “answers” as he calls it, are: start a second (different career), develop a parallel career, or be come a “social entrepreneur”. I found this particular chapter of Drucker’s text particularly intriguing because I see many parallels to my own family members’ and personal friends’ careers. For example, Drucker discusses how many middle-aged executives who become bored or no longer feel challenged with their career embark on a whole new, and completely different profession. My mother for example quit her job as a banker for ten years when she was raising her children (myself and my two siblings) and then decided to start her own business two years ago when my brother was applying to college. My mother started a tutoring company in an effort to help kids reach their optimal score on their SAT and ACTs in order to gain admission in to college. Although she had no previous teaching experience, she spent almost a year learning the methods and techniques necessary to tutor high school students, and now runs a fairly profitable tutoring business. The next path or “answer” to a professional’s “mid-life professional crisis”, if you will, is to develop a parallel career. My father for example was the CFO of a multi-million dollar consumer goods company. Although is no longer with the company, he sits on several boards of similar companies and is also on the board of directors of DePaul University’s Business School in Chicago. My father, like Drucker and myself, is someone who continuously feels the need to be challenged, and by serving on these various boards he is able to fulfill this need. Finally, Drucker’s third answer is to be a “social entrepreneur”. These are people who have become very successful in their first profession, as businesspeople, love their work, but also no longer feel challenged (a recurring theme). These social entrepreneurs start or help to start another (often non-profit) business activity. An example of someone I know who has pursued this path is my sister’s fiancé, Matt, who founded the company complaints.com, a website in which users can post and research consumer complaints. Although he does not fit Drucker’s profile as a mid-forties professional (he is 34), he sold his business and has begun to start other website domains names and holds a significant stake in two peer-to-peer lending firms that are not-for-profit. Thus, I found Drucker’s discussion of the three possible choices for career paths for the “second half of life” to not only be very interesting, but also very true and relevant.

The last element of the reading I wish to discuss in my blog today also comes from Drucker’s text, and is his assertion that the one requirement for managing the second half of one’s life is to begin creating it long before one enters it. Although I found the topic of life after one’s career peak to be slightly irrelevant to my own personal experiences (I haven’t even begun my career), I wholeheartedly would agree that one must also look into the future and think ahead about his or her career. Although this is not always possible (certain events such as being laid off our out of our control), it is always advisable to prepare for what comes next. Again, although I cannot relate on a personal/professional level, in today’s economic climate there must be a vast number of professionals pondering their next career move. As Drucker reiterates, in a knowledge society everyone is expected to be a “success”, but in order to be successful I, like Drucker, believe it is absolutely imperative to always be looking to take that next step, to get the promotion, or to clock the extra hours at the office to ensure that you are making a difference within your organization (or school, or any arena for that matter). In sum, I found these particular Drucker readings to be very enlightening, even though they reference a point in my own life that is quite distance from where I currently stand.