Business of Life

When Just Enough Is All You Need.

What can you say about a man, who having sold his software business for $19 million, was ashamed to tell his peers he hadn't made more?

You'd think he's nuts and so does Laura Nash. in Sunday's NYT. Laura, a senior lecturer in business ethics as the Harvard Business School, has just written a book with Howard Stevenson called "Just Enough: Tools for Creating Success in Your Work and Your Life" (John Wiley & Sons, 2004).
In it they write about the 4 "spheres of life" - happiness, achievement, significance and legacy and say that having just enough in each sphere is more fulfilling than having way too much in one of them.

Claudia Deutsch in Sunday's NYT's interviews Laura in Grab the Brass Ring, or Just Enjoy the Ride
Some lessons the authors have gleaned from their hundreds of interviews can be found in the NYT article:

1/ Recognize that superstardom often carries the baggage of lapsed ethics, alienated spouses or children, substance abuse and a lack of plain, ordinary fun.
2/ If you cannot be a high achiever, switch to the significance sphere of your life.
3/ Remember that the significance of your job does not rest on its impact on the world.
4/ Apply "just enough" to what you give as well as to what you attain.
5/ Remember that it is better to be very good at many important things than to be a superstar at just one.

No amount of success in one area will buy you satisfaction in the others