Strategic Management of Personal Life

There's no reason why we cannot use our wisdom on strategic management of firms and businesses to reflect on our own life and career. There is an interesting, thoughtful article on life and strategy: 

How Will You Measure Your Life?
by Clayton M. Christensen

I have no capacity to answer this philosophical question: what is a (good) life? But, I can point to two unavoidable aspects of life.

First, when there are limited resources and too many people, there will be tough competition, resulting in many "losers" and even "deaths." Life becomes a survival game, and it will be harder to see humanism, love, and friendship in such situations. Only the "fittest" will survive, although defining the fittest seems not very easy. One positive thing is that you can do something about this: you are able to choose certain career paths or location with enough resources (growing industy or city), and thus less competition. Of course, the reward for such career or location may not be as big as what you may get from more competitive "games." But, that's the trade-off that you have to make.

Second, we have to live with our own capabilities. In the capitalist economy, you have to offer your service to someone else, and in return you will get paid. The more "valuable" capabilities you may possess, the better. In the short run, it's very hard to develop and change your skills and capabilities. Once the extent to which you can change your skill set is limited, your choice of career will be pretty much all set. If your capabilities happen to be (1) valuable, (2) rare, (3) non-substitutable, and (4) inimitable, you will enjoy a decent life and career. If not, the chances are you will be stuck in a very competitive job, where you are basically substitutable.

However, the most important step will be to figure out the goal of your life. What do you want to achieve and pursue in your life? The diffculties in life come from the gap between what you want to do and what you can do using "valuable" skills. If one's goal is to make money and that person happens to be good at finance, he or she is a lucky one that probably has a lucrative job at the Wall Street. Most of us are not that fortunate. We have to earn income by doing what we can do best and spend that income to pursue our true goals. If that's the case, you have to figure out how to maximize your income that can be used to pursue your own happiness. This is where you can apply your knowledge of strategy into your career (and life) management: try to identify an attractive game where your own skills are really appreciated.

No one said this would be easy.